Abstract
In women’s memoirs of the Gulag and Soviet prison system, walls are not represented in the entirely negative way one might expect. Rather, the walls hold a paradoxical position in the texts. For, while they physically separate the women from their loved ones and their old lives, the walls become a platform for building friendships and starting up romantic liaisons by providing a means of communication between prisoners in different cells. The walls also offer the women some real protection from the sexual aggressors shown to dominate mixed spaces—and indeed, the walls of these cells are the known in a system where the unknown poses real danger.
Highlights
In women’s memoirs of the Gulag and Soviet prison system, walls are not represented in the entirely negative way one might expect
On the other hand, the walls become a platform for building friendships and starting up romantic liaisons, inadvertently allowing communication between prisoners in different cells and contributing toward a sense of safety which enables passionate love affairs to spring up despite the dividing lines of the men’s and women’s zones
By contrast, the lack of a protective divide is commonly shown to lead to sexual violence
Summary
Across the Divide: Feats of Friendship and Romance in the Gulag Charlotte Dowling FORUM: University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture & the Arts 28 Spring 2019 28/06/2019 Dorothy Lawrenson and Dominic Richard. FORUM claims non-exclusive rights to reproduce this article electronically (in full or in part) and to publish this work in any such media current or later developed. Any latter publication shall recognise FORUM as the original publisher
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