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Though many scholars have referenced Joan Scott as the earliest Gypsy in North America, thanks to a 1695 Henrico County Virginia court record identifying her as “an Egiptian and noe Xtian woman,” none have explored her life further. Despite this, an examination of the fornication charge against Scott suggests much about her life. Scott entered the colony twenty years before her fornication charge and while unmarried bore a child whose father the court considered a man of color. In these ways, Scott’s life appears similar to her contemporaries. Yet, in other ways Scott’s experience differed. By allowing the court to believe in her Gypsy identity and non-Christian religion she worked the court in her favor and saw her case dismissed. When historicized and contextualized, the meager details known about Joan Scott enhance our understanding of the colonial American Gypsy experience and contribute to a broader American historical narrative.
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While analysing the legislative output of the interwar Republic of Poland, most Polish researchers highlight the significant achievements of the so-called Codification Commission established in 1919, whose twenty years of efforts resulted in the drafting of a host of important codes and other acts of high legislative value. This output, however, could only be put to a very short-lived use in the 1930s. Its full potential was not unleashed until after the Second World War, in a completely changed political reality. On a day-to-day basis, the Polish state of the interwar period faced a number of issues that it either desired to overcome or was forced to do so. One of them was the crippled legal status of women, particularly jarring in the reality of the interwar times. Although the reborn Polish statehood, true to lofty democratic ideals, immediately took it upon itself to change the clearly underprivileged legal status of women, the final effect, that is the legislation in force as at the outbreak of the Second World War, looks meagre. The modern codification had not been adopted, the legal particularism in the scope of civil law had been maintained, the anachronistic codification of the preceding century upheld – the ideals of equal rights for women were made a very much imperfect reality. In this article, we attempt to trace the history of how this came to be by examining difficulties in introducing the principle of equality of women’s rights. The example we have chosen serves to shed light on the mundane efforts to overcome the mounting problems with realizing ideas of modernization upon the underlying legal foundations of a country which, at first sight, seems utterly ill-prepared to tackle this task properly.
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For the latest generations of British poets known as the New Generation(1994), Next Generation (2004), and Next Generation 2014, London is the place ofinfinite possibilities that enhance mental versatility and emotional metamorphosistesting, contesting and ultimately attesting identity by blurring the boundaries ofcoherent individuality. This paper proposes an attempt to identify a gynocentricaesthetic orientation originating in urban selfhood by scrutinising severalrepresentative poems by Moniza Alvi, Patience Agbabi and Kate Tempest whoadvance alternative portrayals of the megalopolis in life stories of a generic homourbanus (dis)located in London. The assimilation of the mega-city during the processof selfing forges a specific ethos interpreted through a variety of megalopolitanexperiences among which one can distinguish Londonicity (the ability to conform tothe metropolitan code), ventured Londonification (the endeavour to conquer the hugeconurbation) and Londonimity (urban inadequacy, a tendency to display selfeffacement).However, these poets’ urban psychogeography converges into aparticular state of mind nurtured by their imaginary experience of London as assumeddestiny, a way to shape and re-shape personal cultural codes, providing solidarguments in favour of a gynopoetics of the metropolis forged by the discursivestrategies employed in the female-authored poetic texts.
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This paper analyzes the visual representation of women in Albania from 1945 to 1990, as especially in ´the pictures magazine "New Albanian", organ of the Organization of Women's Union of Albania. The study is based on the theory of analysis and synthesis of photography, Manfred Lueger, and proposes the analysis visual through the concept of "glorification symbolic", to accept the latter as part of the necessary effort of the ideological regime to prove that participation of women in politics and in the labor force was a sign of their emancipation. By analyzing the pictures, there is a kind of "neglect" aspects linked to femininity, and the female identity compacted with contemporary ideological purposes.
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This paper analyzes a geisha strike that occurred in Osaka on February 26, 1937. At Nanchi Gokagai (Osaka), the largest geisha district in modern Japan, about sixty geisha went on strike because the manager of the call-office refused to recognize the union they had formed. All geisha had to register with the call-office, but they had no voice in deciding the call-office's policies. The geisha strikers climbed Mount Shigi and stayed at Gyokuzō Buddhistt emple for several days. At the time, the strike caused a sensation. However the strike has not been the focus of attention in studies of Women's Labor Movements by Women's Studies scholars in Japan until recently. Geisha have seldom been viewed as 'regular' female workers. Rather, they are often treated only as victims of human trafficking and thus are marked by the stigma of 'being a prostitute.' Therefore, focusing on the geishas' self-representations and the high level of self-awareness seen in them, my paper discusses the Osaka geisha strike as a significant moment in the history of the women's labor movements that helped geisha to acquire confidence as women workers.
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This article examines the portrayal of female identity and crime in the Tudor period in Nancy Bilyeau’s contemporary historical crime fiction novel, The Crown (2012). Featuring a female detective figure, Joanna Stafford, Bilyeau’s novel forms part of the wealth of contemporary fiction using Tudor history as context, reflecting a continued interest in and fascination with this period and its prominent figures. This article examines Bilyeau’s representation of the Tudor period in The Crown through the depiction of English society and culture from a contemporary perspective, employing genre fiction in order to highlight issues of criminality. My investigation of The Crown as crime fiction specifically involves analysing gender-political questions and their portrayal within the novel and its tumultuous historical context. This investigation furthermore explores the depiction of agency, individuality, religion, and politics. The article concludes that Bilyeau’s suspense-filled novel provides an imaginative representation of Tudor history through the prism of the crime fiction genre. Central to this project is its employment of a resourceful and complex female detective figure at the heart of the narrative.
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Writing women’s literary history from a transnational perspective
Women telling nations / Amelia Sanz, Francesca Scott, Suzan van Dijk. – Amsterdam–New York, NY, 2014. – 472 pp. ISBN: 978-90-420-3870-7; E-book ISBN: 978-94-012-1112-3.
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The article elaborates on the mechanism used to construct the memory and to mythologize the figure of Hristina Hranova (1851/52 - 1922) who allegedly has taken part in the Russian-Ottoman War of 1877 – 1878. The major focus is on her biographical narrative, created by herself (and latter on used by her "biographers" during different historical periods since 1878 until today. Hristina Hranova’s image has been not only promoted in popular historical writings with more and more exotic nuances. Lately she has been also tacitly institutionalized, which is a significant step towards her mythologization.
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The first Soviet-Bulgarian movie devoted to the Russo-Ottoman War was created in 1954 as a Soviet model for the Bulgarian national cinema. "The Heroes of Shipka" is historical chronicle of the war whose messages were directed also to the new enemies of the Cold War. At the beginning of the “golden years” of the Bulgarian cinema (1970 – 1980s) the Russian-Ottoman War became a subject of two co-productions with the Soviet cinematography – the two series movie “Yuliya Vrevska” (1878) of the director Nikola Korabov and the TV movie “The Route to Sofia” (1979) of the director Nikolay Mashchenko. The present analysis is based on the movie archives and the reviews about it in Soviet and Bulgarian official press.
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О покушају стварања женске културне заједнице у раду Јелице Беловић Бернаджиковск
The text is about Jelica Belović Bernadzikowska, a writer, ethnographer and teacher, and about her work on self-affirmation and the affirmation of her contemporaries. Bernadzikowska’s effort to describe and present the work of Serbian women in the cultural domain is seen in the light of the specific notion of culture she uses in her monograph on textile art (1907) and connected to the work and reception of her contemporaries who were presented in the almanac Serbian Woman (1913).
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Család, házasság és politika a dualizmus korában Magyarországon
Review of the book "A budapesti úrinő magánélete (1860–1914)" by Noémi Szécsi, Eleonóra Géra (Budapest, 2015)
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A leszbikusság képei a Kádár-korszak pszichiátriai irodalmában
The paper presents and analyzes the representations of women’s same-sex desires, sexualities and relationships in state socialist psychiatric and sexology literature. These texts constitute a significant corpus of images of gays and lesbians, both reflecting on and contributing to the discourse on homosexuality. Within the psychological discourses on homosexuality, the case of women shows special characteristics. Women usually appear along a continuum, in which their sexual choices are linked to emotional factors and a general need for intimacy in the first place. There is no “need” for therapeutic conversion for women since the socially prescribed scripts for getting married are strong enough and the lack of sexual pleasure with men is not considered to be a problem. Psycho-medical accounts seem to lack the recognition of lesbian identity or life perspective altogether; lesbianism is interpreted as an early attachment disorder or a substitute for unsatisfying relationships with men. The fundamental therapeutic aim is to achieve good social adaptation and adjustment. In this process, psychology experts are influential representatives of the heteronormative society, reinforcing gender norms and straight family ideals. Scholarly and popular psy- and sexology literature suggests that even though transgressing sexuality was a stronger taboo for men, women’s transgression of marriage was considered a more serious social threat.
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Életútinterjúk meleg férfiakkal a hatvanas–nyolcvanas évekről
The book entitled Hot Men, Cold Dictatorships was published along the documentary of the same title in 2015. This is the first collection of interviews that presents the lives of older gay men who were socialised in the Kádár era. Thirteen participants, their photos and names supplied, relate their lives and experiences living as gay men in the Kádár regime. The paper shows that although their lives are very different, they also show similarities. It gives an insight into the process of self-acceptance of homosexual men in the 1960s and 1970s, the type of information at their disposal, as well as the terms they used to describe themselves. In addition, the study also sheds light on the typical life strategies of closet homosexuals and men who came out at least in certain circles, as well as their most popular ways and places to meet and socialise. The paper also examines the establishment’s attitudes towards homosexuals and vice versa, police monitoring and the beginnings of the LMBT movement in Hungary.
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The paper examines the main features of the image of queer subculture in the first half of the twentieth century based on police and press discourses. Queer subculture in the modern metropolis was a very diverse and complex phenomenon at the time, with a number of various sub-types. This complexity is not only observed by historians of queer culture but was also evident for contemporary analysts like police officers and journalists. As indicated in the title, the discourse about male homosexuality in this period is characterized by a gradual medicalisation. After the 1900s homosexuality began to be interpreted as a disease and a perversion that can be cured and healed.The primary sources of the study are police documents, books published by police officers and articles in Budapest newspapers. In addition to the daily press Perényi examines books of urban reportage first appearing in Budapest in the 1900s, which are closely linked to the discourse in the press. The joint works of reporter Kornél Tábori and head of the police press office Vladimir Székely give an especially sharp insight into urban queer culture of Budapest.The analysis of police and press discourses of same-sex sexuality supports the thesis that from the 1900s until the end of the Horthy era, regardless of the political system, attitudes toward queer culture were generally tolerant, which can be largely attributed to the fact that non-normative forms of sexual behavior were interpreted in a medicalised way.
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This texts talks about three single, uneducated Polish women living alone (a dressmaker, servant, and kitchen worker), who during the war sheltered Jews in their apartments in Warsaw and Drohobych. All three of them helped the Jews for money, but – as far as we know – none of them resorted to financial blackmail or any other major abuse of a financial character. Nevertheless, the war circumstances became an opportunity for them to fulfill their emotional needs, otherwise impossible to satisfy. They derived pleasure from having power and control over another person and their actions towards the Jews they sheltered also bore traces of a class revenge. The authors analyze the relations between the helpers and helps mostly on the basis of Jerzy Feliks Urman’s diary and memoirs of Karol Rotgeber and Calek Perechodnik. Aside from the sociological theory of exchange systems, another useful tool facilitating comprehension of the Polish women’s behavior and their interactions with the Jews in hiding, which are described in those texts, is Erich Fromm’s concept of human cruelty as a highly complex phenomenon that cannot be reduced to openly violent actions.
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On November 28, 1918, Chief of State Józef Piłsudski signed a decree prepared by the government of Jędrzej Moraczewski granting active and passive voting rights to women. At the same time, throughout the whole interwar period, civil law remained contrary to the principle of gender equality enshrined in the Constitution of March 1921. It resulted from the provisions of the legal codes of pre-war empires and was under requisition until 1939. Moreover, it is worth remembering that in the world of distribution and power relations, connections and distinguishing the “assigned” roles of male and female were more important than equality in parliamentary elections. The author of the article tries to show that there was a huge gap between the law and the actual political practice during the whole period. He examines pre-election calls for voting articles, reports from political meetings as well as articles on suffrage written by men and women. Different political parties had one thing in common – women were treated by their representatives as a beautification of politics, not as equal partners. It appears that not only men believed that they were better prepared for public world offices – the majority of women, even from the upper classes, shared this vision. The example of the south-eastern provinces of the Second Polish Republic shows huge conservatism of the elite’s mentality.
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The ethnographic work of Jelica Belović Bernadzikowska, aimed at the development and classification of ornaments and embroidery techniques, was marked by the strong positioning of folk textile art in the context of South Slavic folklore. This scientific approach is characterized by ideas on the individuality of South Slavic embroidery, specific national spirit that permeates this kind of creative art and distinct intertwining of different types of art, especially poetry and textile ornamentation. By observing national embroidery in the context of larger folklore heritage, the author points to the significance of the creative process as a compound of tradition and individual talent, as well as its complex nature. The notion of national embroidery as the materialization of the national thoughts, feelings and traditions has contributed to the fact that the study of Jelica Belović Bernadzikowska represents a veritable treasure trove of short forms of folklore, passages, beliefs and other echoes of national spirit.
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Julka Chlapec Djordjević (1882–1969), born in Novi Sad, married with Czech husband, belongs to the so-called second wave of feminists who are of the Novi Sad origin. On the foundations of the first wave of feminism in the then Vojvodina, which focused on the public visibility, i.e. the right to work and participate in public life, as well as on the accessibility of higher education for this gender group, “the second wave” of feminist authors situated, who set their interest on the emancipation of women in the area of private and family life, and, consequently, on the political rights and liberties of women introducing international experience in this domain into the local environment.
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Toško Vlahović was a student of philosophy at the universities of St. Petersburg and Jena, the Chetnik duke and the commander of the detachment of Krajina in the Serbian resistance movement and Toplica uprising. In his war diary, he recorded impressions of the female part of the population of the Kingdom of Serbia during the occupation in the Great War (1915–1918). For members of the tenderer sex, girls and women, Vojvoda Vlahović used the term “ženske” which was then used in everyday life. The occupied Serbian society, which was to a certain extent divided, is presented realistically. Women and girls provided help and support to participants in the resistance movement and rebels, but there was also a small number of “chicks” who collaborated with the Bulgarian occupying authorities. This cooperation was reflected in the informative activities, i.e. reporting of compatriots for various “violations”. Vlahović witnessed the massive suffering of the civilian population during the criminal expedition of the troops of the Central Powers, which followed the breakup of the uprising movement. In the diary he recorded the pain and suffering of girls, women (younger, middleaged, and elderly). Women were victims of abuse of Bulgarian soldiers and komitadji. But, sometimes, members of the Serbian resistance movement were also abusers. Women were raped, beaten, mistreated, sometimes killed. Toško Vlahović’s notebooks were written in difficult times, when the imperative was to survive. Life turned into a continuous and merciless struggle for the preservation of bare existence. In this fight, at times, the “goals”, “patriotism”, “the fatherland” were forgotten... This makes this historical source valuable. The diary is accurate, realistic, picturesque. The author, using the richness of the examples of the “deviations from the rule”, illustratively presents the dark and bright side of the life of the “Women’s Society” during the occupation.
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