Symbolic mothering. Genealogical narratives as a peripheralization practice

• Authors: Ramme Jennifer
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

The article takes up on the problem of genealogical narratives of influence produced by nongovernmental feminist environments aiming for social change. The focus of this article lies on mother-daughter narratives and its function as a centralization and marginalization practice. A hypothesis is that such narratives serve the legitimization and stabilizing of present and future positionings of feminist actors in relation to each others. There are many possible factors enabling the establishment of successful narratives of influence, such as for example geographical location or privileges resulting from certain identity categorization. In this text selected disputes (such as a debate on a waves chronology of “Polish feminism”) and events (such as the 8 of March demonstration “Manifa” in Warsaw) serves to analyze the problem of setting narratives of influence, with a perspective on specific fields and types of feminist activism in the 2000s in Poland. The aim oft his article to open up the floor for a reflection on history politics, as well in cases when history is produced as an emancipatory or counter-history. Instead of applying single time-lines of genealogical cause-effect narratives bound to figures of leaders, the author proposes a multiplication of perspectives and urges to pay more attention to social-political contexts and processes, as a possible reason for the emergence of multiple, collective (counter-)actions.

Keywords

EN

feminism; Poland; history politics; genealogy; peripheralization

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Polskiego Towarzystwa Historycznego
• Journal: Rocznik Antropologii Historii
• Year: 2016
• Issue: 9, Dziedzictwo kulturowe
• Pages: 251–269

Contributors

author

Ramme Jennifer

• uropean University Viadrina in Frankfurt