“An Unexpectedly Transgressive Subject of Twentieth-Century History”: How to Write (and Why to Read) about Communist Women Today

• Authors: Agnieszka Mrozik

Abstracts

EN

This review article discusses two newly-released publications on communist women activists: Kristen Ghodsee’s Red Valkyries: Feminist Lessons from Five Revolutionary Women and The Palgrave Handbook of Communist Women Activists around the World, edited by Francisca de Haan. It focuses on questions of narrative and the persuasive function of the reviewed works, asking how and for whom one should write about communist women today. It brings to light methodological challenges, as well as those related to access to sources on communist women. It also reflects on the place that publications which tell stories of communist women who challenged gender, class, and racial inequalities in the past occupy in the perception of contemporary readers, so often confronted in these times with experiences of inequality and violence.

Keywords

EN

communist women activists; left feminists; thought collective; radical imagination; state feminism; biographical approach

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla PAN w Warszawie
• Journal: Acta Poloniae Historica
• Year: 2023
• Volume: 128
• Pages: 293-306

Dates

published

2023

Contributors

author

Agnieszka Mrozik

• Institute of Literary Research, Polish Academy of Sciences

• https://orcid.org/0000000284389652

References

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Identifiers

DOI

10.12775/APH.2023.128.13

Biblioteka Nauki

28707360