Femininities and Masculinities Gender Re-presented

Abstract

In this text, the novelist Dubravka Ugrešić recasts the East-West dialogue as fairy tale, or modern myth. The relationship between Eastern and Western Europe is portrayed as a love affair gone stale. Ugrešić deploys recently ‘re-discovered’ stereotypes of femininity and masculinity in her ironic version of the age-old tale. The ‘real’ possibility of marriage — with the fall of the Wall as Cold War divide — cools the passion, since with the possibility of official legitimation, the liaison has lost the allure of the illicit. What is worse is that gentle, feminine Eastern Europe is finding her voice, even making demands. ‘Things have changed. Grey, silent Eastern Europe has begun to speak, to cross frontiers, and, hey, she doesn’t seem to need the Westerner any more. He feels disappointed, no, not only because of the loss of an intimate territory. … His former mistress is increasingly like his own wife!’ (Ugrešić, 1998a: 241, 1998b: 301).KeywordsFairy TaleMedia ImageryNationalist DiscourseGender RegimeGender Power RelationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.