Gender Discourse in Slavic Literature, Literary Criticism and Theory at the Turn of the 21st Century

Abstract

The paper aims at presenting a comparative review of current Slavic literature (and related fields) as reflecting contemporary gender and feminist issues. In various parts of Slavdom the processes of awakening or revitalizing gender awareness have been taking place with various speed and ‘local colour’: in the former Yugoslavia since the end of the 1970s, in Russia since the second half of the 1980s (one should not speak about ‘former Soviet Union’ in this context, since the ‘feminist revival’ concerned mostly some Moscow circles), with the rest of the Slavic post-communist world responding to them sooner or later after 1989. They have faced a strong backlash everywhere, both from conservative/nationalist/populist discourses, as well as – though in different forms and expressed in different rhetoric – from the liberal/democratic/progressive ones. It is of crucial importance to enhance the mutual awareness of gender issues within the whole post-communist world, as well as exchange information and launch international projects concerning relevant topics.