Policing the borders of belonging: gender, sexuality and the Polish nation

• Authors: Stauter-Halsted Keely
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

This article looks at the role of lower class urban women in defining Polish national identity at the turn of the twentieth century. Relying on the classic iconography of the Matka Polka, the essay considers how women at the margins of Polish society such as criminals, vagrants, sexual “deviants” and the poor helped reinforce patterns of prescribed behavior among national activists as the country drew closer to political independence. The piece focuses especially on the professional prostitute as a classic boundary violator, drawing from the author’s forthcoming book, The Devil’s Chain: Prostitution and Social Control in Partitioned Poland.

Keywords

EN

gender; sexuality; nationalism; prostitution; Matka Polka; migration; bourgeois

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Polskiego Towarzystwa Historycznego
• Journal: Rocznik Antropologii Historii
• Year: 2014
• Issue: 2(7), Historia i płeć
• Pages: 37–54

Contributors

author

Stauter-Halsted Keely

• Uniwersytet Illinois w Chicago