Urednice/Editors/Editorinnen:

SEMINAR/SEMINAR

8urda KneZevi, Koraljka Dili, Anne Dabb

v

GrafiCko oblikovanje/Graphic

design/Design:

Karmen Gasparini

"Zene ipolitika:
Feminizmi na istoeni nein"

Prijevod/Translation/berzetzung:
Iva Krtali, Koraljka Dili, Antje Smock, Branimira Mrak

Lektura/Language

editing/Lektorinnen:

Sanja Galekovi, Anne Dabb, Ant je Smock

Women and Politics:

Feminisms With an Eastern Touch"

~orektura/Proof-reading/Korrektur:
Zenska infoteka

"Frauen und Politik:

Feminismen mit stlicher Note"

DOKUM ENTACUA/DOCU M ENTATION/DOKU MENTATION

Fi~a~cijska potpora/Financial

support/Finanzierung:

Heinneh Boell Stiftung

Dubrovnik, 17-21. 5. 2000.

2000.

SADRZAJjCONTENTSjINHALT:

1. SVETLANA
ClP - Katalogizacija
Nacionalna

u publikaciji

i sveuciliino knjiznico, Zagreb

UDK 316.66-055.2(4-69)"199"(063\
342.7-055.2(4-69)"
SEMINAR

199"(063)'

"Zene ipolitika:

istoeni nocin" (2000;

Seminar
istoeni noin,

Feminizmi na

Zene ipolitika:

= Seminar

Women

= Seminar

Dokumentation

/ .( prijevod

<et ol.> ; urednica

ol.>. - Zagreb

19

Ferninismus als Bedrohung fr die Dernokratie:

Anrifeminismus und Frauen in der slowcnischen

2000.

,
Politik

105
, . .193

na hrv -. engl. i njern. jeziku.

uz neke rodove

i uz tek st.

3. GORDANA

Ill. Feminizam

BUJISl

HRVATSKA/CROATIA/KROATIEN
PsihOlerapeulski pristup modernoj
Perspektva psihoterapcurkinja

II..

Zene - - Drustveni status - - Zemlje u

401219085

185

Ferrunism as a Threat for Dernocracy:

Anriferninisrn anJ Wornen in Slovenian Politics

Iva Krtali ...

I~ Prava Zena - - Zemlje u tranziciji

'--

"von obcn'

Ferninizarn kao priiemja dcrnokraciji:

Anrifeminizum izene u slovenskoj polirici

Note :

ISBN 953-6860-02-3

tranziciji

wahrend des bergangs:

SLOVENIJA/SLOVENIA/SLOWENIEN

KneZevi ... et

: Zenska infoteko,

Tekst usporedo
Biblioqrcli]o

Durda

99

von Fraucn ill Arrnenicn

2. VALERUA BERNIK

and

Frou und

Politik: Feminismen mit Oestlicher

Gender Eqllaliry "From Above":

Womrns Righls JS Human Righrs in Transiriori in Arrncrua

Feminizmi na

Politics: Ferninisms Wi th an Eastern Touch

. documentation

11

Cieichlxrechligung

Dubrovnik .. 17.-21.5.2000.

: dokumentacija

ARMENIJA/ ARMEN!A/ ARMENINEN

Zenska ljudska prava u Armeniji, u penodu tranzicijc:
[ednakosr spolova "odozgo"

Mcnschcurcchtc

Dubrovnik)

A. ASLANYAN

A Psychorherapeutic .\pproJch
Pcrspective otPsychotherapists

. - Zbornik

..-1

z.cni:

ro "Todays"

JI
Wornan:

Ps)'chorherapeutische
Auffassung der rnudernen
Standpunkt einer weiblichen Psychotherapeutin

115
Frau:
209

4. JASMI~--JAHUSAI'~OVl

8.VIVIJANA

BOSNA I HERCEGOVINA/BOSN1A

HRVATSKA/CROATIA/KROATIEN

Af,m HERZEGOVli'-JA/

BOSNIEN UI'~D HERZEGO\NINA

Zena kao nacija :

Ljubavne price II postjllgoslavenskim

Diskurs i/ili praksa?

Sadasnja teminisrii'b

RADMAN

i poststrukturalisticka

rnisao

i slucaju "zenske scene" II konreksru istok - zapad

Discourse and/or Practicc?

"idcnurctu

Wornan as Nation.
Love Stories in Post-Yugoslav

polirike"

""."".,.".",.35

. 151

9. MARlAGRAZIA

ROSSILLI

ITALIJA/ITALY/ITALlEN
Gradansko pravo zena II suvrernenom
Ponovno pitanje graaanskog prava

ferninizam:

HRVATSKA/CROATIA/KROATIEN

Dic Brgerrechre

Zene u Hrvarskoj dcvcdesctih:

Privrerncna bilanea icdn polirike ,
"
Women in Croatian in the 1990s:
'Iernporary Balance of Politics
.,

Brgerrcchtc

Frauen

im Kroatien

Vorbergehendes

der neunziger
Glcichgewicht

,.'

227

POUSKA/POLAND/POLEN
Trafficking and Feminism:
Rights Issue
,
Frauenhandel

,.,,,

, , , .))

Re frarn ing Trafficking in Women as a Human

" ., .. ,.,
',
"
,
' ,141

als ferninistisches

Therna

. . , .. ' .. , .. , ,

,,

, . , . .237

7. MARIJA MOLNAR
HRVATSKA/CROATIA/KROATIEN
Kako ne "skoiri": Pria feministice iz malug gTada ",.,

... "

, ... .59

Learning Not to "J urnp'': 111 les of a Ferumist in a Small Town "
, .. 145
Lernen, nicht zu "springen" - Geschichten ciner Ferninisun in eincr
Kleinstadt

.. ,

, .. ,

,.'.,

pitanje , . ,

,,

,,.,.,

Ferninismus:

,.,.,.,

,.,

.259

10. EVA THUN

Jahre:

6. BARBARA LlMANOWSKA
Trgovin<l zenama bo feministii'ko

."

,. 159

,.",.45
,. L3l

der Politik

von Frauen im zeirgcnssischem

naher bctrachtct

.73

5. ERMA IVOS-NIKSl

749

,119

,.2} 3

",

,., .... 65

Cinematogruphics

Women and Citizcnship in Contcmporary Ferninism:

Citizenship Revisited .. ,
,.,
,

, .. , .. "

., ....

Die Frau als Nation:

, POSlJllgOSaWIsc
'1'
I1en FilIm ... , .. ,Liebesgeschichten Im

Recent Feminist and Post-Structuralist Thought on "Identiry Politics"

and the Case of a "Worncn's Scene" in the East:!West Context ",.",
Diskurs ader Praxis?
Neueste feministische und postsirukturalistische
Gedanken bcr dic
"Politik der Identitat" und den Fali der "Frauenszcne"
im Ost/Vvest-Korucxr
,

kirwm:.lwgl'lfijam'l

243

MADARSKA/H LJNGARY/LJNGARN
Konstruiranjc spola u rnaaarskom kulruruom
devedcsetih godina ,.".,.".,.,
,

diskursu

Constructing Gender in
Hungariari Cultural Discourses in the 19905
Die Gcschlechtcrfrage
in
ungarischen kulturellen Diskursen

der 90er Jahre

83

.169
,

273

m1

SEMINAR: "FEMINISMS WITH AN EASTERN TOUCH"

SEMINAR: "FEMINISMS WITH AN EASTERN TOUCH"

the neu/ EI/rope edited by Percy B. Lehning

Young, Iris Marion.

& Albert Weale.

1989 "Polity and Group

Dillerence:

EVA THUN, HUNGARY

A Critique

of the Ideal of

Universal Citizenship" in Ethics 99: 250-74.

Young, Iris Marion. 1990 [usticc and Politics oJ Diffcrence. Princeton:
University Press.
Young, Iris Marion.
Collective"
Cambridge:

1997 "Gender

as Seriality: Thinking

Im

about Women

Princerori
as a Social

in Inteneaing Vices:Dilcmmas oJ Gendo; Poluical Philosophy and Polity.

Princeton

University

Press.

Constructing Gender
in Hungarian Cultural Discourses
in the 1990's

Hungary entered the arenas of liberal democracy and free-market

economy influenced by promises ofindividual and pluralist participation on the one hand, and faced wi th the realities of economic and corporate restraints on the other. Within this seemingly wider space (as
compared to the state's socialist past) came the discovery that the freedoms acquired were "negative freedoms", that is, freedoms "from",
rather than substantial positive and creative freedoms, or freedoms
"to". New opportunities did not necessarily translate into the creation
of new structures for the participation of a variety of individuals.
Instead, the new demoeratic order triggered aggressive stratification
processes along the lines of gender, ethnicity, educational background
and geographical region. The "public" sphere, wirhin which women
could have found spaces to speak from, did not emerge and civic society did not evolve. In the case of Hungary, the outward stability ofthe
state and the political system and relatively pro mis ing economic
growth came about by sacrificing underlying liberal demoeratic
stances of social justice, individual freedom and shared and dialegically produced public values. The public sphere is interpreted as consisting merely of the politics of economics, international politics, party
politics and the media scene. "Private" spaces seem to have absorbed

Im

SEMINAR: "FEMINISMS WITH AN EASTERN TOUCH"

SEMINAR: "FEMINISMS WITH AN EASTERN TOUCH"

Im

every other activity, which were otherwise traditionally located in the

civic sphere, including the world of smi-public, controversial (legally
and social policy-wise) social foundations, firms, and associations. In
this way, these organisations attempt to avoid structural and institutional constraints, accountability, and responsibility and, gradually,
social missions are turned into individual profit-oriented ventures. It
is important to investigate the reasons for the lack of social sensitivity,
the low levels of awareness about opportunities available and the lack
of public discourses about the emerging social-political and cultural
values of the transition era. It is also timely to analyse the peculiarities
of these social processes, which seem to move towards the exclusion
and silencing of women in the public arena (politics and work opportunities), by using the outdated arguments of patriarchal traditions
and by promoting the values of a consumer society and of popular culture: The omnipoterit position of high politics and the hegemony of
traditional cultural my ths are not questioned. There is no forum for
public debates, for the contestation of different views and opinions.
The various interests of certain social groups do not enter into any dialogue with each other, they do not communicate, do not consider each
other 's views, and their arguments are not weighed against each other.

tor. This situation is paradoxicai for parncipants in CIVIC society

including the women's movement and wornen's organisations: if they
set out to change structural features of a certain poiiticai agenda, then
how successful can they be when they are dependent on exactly the
same structures that they intend to transform? Women's groups
whose objectives are specificaIly a-political (i.e. cultural or awareness
raising groups) face even more difficulties.
"This created a situation and social pattern!context in
which the most active parts of wornen's move ment are
actually highly dependent on those structures and institutions that feminism has identified as thresholds
against gender equality and which, feminists claim,
should be targets of subversion and change. This
dependency goes beyond a functional relationship
based on finances. It included state's interference by
decisions about which initiative does or does not get
financed. In times of fiscai crisis it spurs increasing competition and friction among projects instead of co-ordinated efforts to influence decision ma king" (Lang,
1997).

Civic Movements and Social Institutions

The apparent apathy among wornen, however, cannot be simply
attributed to economic individualism and distance from established
politics, but must be seen in relation to a general lack of feminist
mobilisation strategies.
Women's organisations, like many other civic organisations, are
financed largely by the state, which means that the projects and infrastructures of women's organisations are thoroughly dependent on
state financing and unpredictable foreign funding. The funds offered
are typicaIly attached to goals set by someone else's agenda. This provides neither the appropriate environment Bor opportunities for a
womeri's movement to develop and create its own institutions, structures and modus vivendi (operational experiences). These circumstances have also led to professionalization, which results in marginalizing feminist spaces as merely "alternative" lifestyles and as "job"
attitudes that are identified as being part of the formai hierarchical sec-

It seems as though these groups do not share common interests in

educating and informing citizens about the rools and skills necessary
for democracy. It is somehow taken for granted that Hungaran citizens are aware of and knowledgeable about those skills, yet the majority were socialised into a culture where the state did the thinking and
acting for them.
The present weakness of the movement lies in its inability to articulate and expose these difficulties and dependencies. Instead, each
initiative tends to adopt strategies of secrecy, of not sharing.
Compartmentalisation
and competition
within the movement
inhibits the focus on a common agenda; 'private' lobbying 'takes
pia ce instead of joint public pressure and public lobbying. In effect,
the groups have too little presence in the public discourse of civic
society and put their energy into private strategies instead. This
also means that the weight and significance of certain issues may
be distorted - either marginalized or blown out of proportion due

ml

SEMINAR:

"FEMINISMS

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SEMINAR:

"FEMINISMS

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to the lack of dialogue, compromise

and coalition building.
Oependence
on having women in offices and ministries on the
local and state levels work so long as these institutions have strong
positions and bargaining power in ternis of state decision-making
processes. This, however, is not the case. The reality of feminist
politicai organising has shifted toward limited participatory venues
and equally narrow options to gain a public voice within civil society.
The sem-state and semi-civil nature of the Hungarian Women's

Additionally, decision makers do not seern to be able to diffcrentiate

between party politics and state and social policy matters. Either
intentionally or due to the lack of knowledge about social policy, they
tend to make decisions without consuiting those concerned and without involving the wider public. They opt instead to withhold information and hinder communication,
on the one hand, and then to
stage events and produce publications with meagre or misleading contents, on the other. The latest exarnple of this is the CEDAW Country
Report.

Council exemplifies this process. In practical terms, the participatien

ofNGOs in a state decision-makng body may lead to the suffocation
of the scanty wornen's civic activities that existed previously. The
establishment of the Women's Council is not the result of processed of
extensive, demoeratic discussion among the participants of the
wornen's movement, but is instead embedded in a subtle redefinition
of the woman question as part of the revival of conservative right wing
politics as state-oriented action. For example, social anxiety over
abortion has recently emerged as part of a much broader ideological
struggle over the meanings and definitions of family, motherhood,
female sexuality, privacy, and the state. The cultural message is clear:
according to dominant political thought, the wornen's sphere is
restricted to the family and to producing children for the nation.
Feminists are openly calIed 'murderers of mothers', Consequently,
the strategies of post-social ist regressive ideologies, which rely on the
non-presence of women in public life, should be investigated further.
Julia Kristeva describes this phenomenon with justifiably bitter overtones:
"The very recent studies that are beginning to be published on
the underlying logic of Soviet society and if the transition period (that is already bitterly being called 'catastroika') show to
what extent a society based on the rudirnentary satisfaction of
survival needs, to the detriment of the desire for freedom, could
encourage the regressive sado-rnasochistic leanings of women,
and without emancipating them at all, rely on them to ereatc a
stagnation, a para-religious support of the status quo crushing
the elementary rights of the human person."

Regarding international commitments of the Hungariari state, including EU law harmonisation and gender mainstreaming policies, governmental officials seern to have adopted policies of doublethink and
double-act in the hopes ofbecoming a member state. In national legislative processes, it is clear that issues of gender mainstreaming are
interpreted in the framework ofHungary's basic social unit, the family. Therefore, for example, family-based policy, rarher than gender or
employment-based
policy recognises wornen's employment rights in
the context of wornen's so called natural!traditional
family resporisibilities. Further, the documentation of policies is ofien unreliable and
unprofessional. The wording of policies rernains very vague and lends
itself to misinterpretation
or 'alternarive' interpretations. Standards
and protocols of translation and language use have not been dcvelop ed and are not monitored.
Discourses

of Identity

The promising dernands of the new market economy have taken priority for most Hungarians. Agendas and discourses about identity
have gone unacknowledged or have be en distorted. a situation which
has discouraged civic activities. The production of a monolithic patriarchal identity, however, is widely exhibited. The domina nt valid (i.e.
masculine) identity is aggressive, if clurnsy, and exhibits a kind of tunnel vision trained on politicai power and econornic status. This identity is embedded in a traditional ideology of national pride that prioritizes idealistic
wit and cunning
and upholds
traditional
EuropeanJI--Iungarian values, Oue to general politicai and ideological
confusion or, rather, due to the lack of agreed upon standards, it is very
difficult to interpret notions of the public and private in the

Im

SEMINAR:

uFEMINISMS

WITH AN EASTERN TOUCHu

Hungarian social con text. This difficulty in interpretation also lies in

the complexity of inherited politicai and cultural ideologies and practices. Layers of diverse, yet historically "rnainstrearned", discourses
have piled up in rapid succession, leaving little time or space for discussion and reflection. Gyrgy Csepeli identifies the antecedents of
these attitudes:
"State socialism has eradicated the storehouse of diverse possible identities, which are being created in the midst of civic societies, however, at the same time it has created very rigid and
inflexible identities filled with negative content. Nobody can
tell who they are, however, everybody read ily describes who
they are NOT. The public discourse of identity has been contaminated by this negative identity in the sense that there is still
a very distinct gap between the official (i.e. admissible in public) identity and the private (i.e. secret) one. In this post-modern world Central Eastern Europe wears the mask of modernity, which do es not, in fact, reflect or have an effect on the historical belatedness and "backwardness" of the social processes."
"Cardboard identities" prevail as models because of the lack of education and skills in identity development, these two dimensional cardboard models and characters are the ones which seem access ib le,
understandable and, hence, preferable to individuals. The products of
consumer culture and the media read ily provide these models.
Redistribution of Power Spaces and Cultural Capital
Erzsbet Szalai observes that Hungarian society has quickly adapred
to Post-rnoderniry and even over-exaggerates its post-modern status by
interpreting freedom and human rights as unlimited freedom without
either collective or individual responsibilities. This applies to participants on the academic scene of the social sciences as weIl (discourses
of the new distributive justice tend simply to ignore identity politics,
and fails to analyse the gendered nature of social processes). Szalai
asserts:
"It is a most striking phenomenon that communication among
the actors of social sciences has shrunk and almost died away.
The environment for meaningful discussion has also disap-

SEMINAR:

UFEMINISMS

WI TH AN EASTERN TOUCHu

Im

peared, and even the specific language of social sciences has

lost its meanings. In the 1970s and 1980s sociology created and
fostered the language and the discourse of social sciences and
was a powerful force in creating cultural discussions (if only an
elitists one). From the end of the 1980s and in the 19905, however, it is the political discourse that has become the instrumental mode of cultural production as weil. Cultural and
social discourses limit themselves to the discussion of certain
politicai icons or to the discussion of unexpected events. By
now the repetition of speech patterns and slogans has become
the accepted modes of interaction. The only space left for
meaningfui communication is literature and cultural life."
Most Hungarian social scientists refuse to acknowledge the significance of gender issues and problems of patriarchal domination; just as
communist ideologies erased the problem of patriarchal domination
(class domination, class system), today's post-socialist social sciences
also erase the problem of sexual inequality. The reasons for this shortsightedness are many-fold. First, researchers themselves may be biased
by rigid socialisation into practising authoritarian-style science, which
valorizes scientific "objectivity" and demeans research based on experience and/or other qualitative methodologies. This can easily be
done, since, due to the lack of civic discourses, experience is always
loeked in the private and not in the public domain. Consequently the
social sciences remain untouchable, dogma like social sciences.
Predominance of the descriptive and statistical kind of sociology is
accepted, instead of the analytical, critical and participatory kind.
Secondly, hegemonic and hierarchical power dynamics in the social
sciences are the remnants and routines of political communication
strategies of the past. This has given rise to a class of "new experts",
whose expertise pertains to the alleged "scientific" development of
social policy issues. The questions of reliability and accountability
cannot be raised because of the "scientific" context and the claims of
objectivity attached to it. The fact that most of the "scientists" have not
had education and experience in developing social policies in a dernocratic environment is not contested in any way. These social scientists, particularly sociologists, possess a certain kind of cultural power,

l!l!I

SEMINAR: "FEMINISMS WITH AN EASTERN TOUCH"

since many of them beleng to the forrner dissident elite. In order to be

able to sustain this kind of power and translate it into the altered
needs, and also to be able to make up for the deteriorating infrastructure and failing opportunities of the scientific research and social
research in particular, rnost of the researchers have accepted the redefinition of the power system on the basis/account of purifying the
social science from any engagement in social action or participation in
social activities. Thus the critical edge of social research is successfullyerased.
. .
This is clearly noticeable in the activities of token academic [eminists
and feminism. Whoever in his/her career produced research and publications that, however briefly and for whatever reasons, dealt WI th
wornen, is undisputedly considered as a feminist scholar, for the sake
oflooking good statistically, especially in the international community of scholars. The issues of methodology and commitment are not
asked about. There is yet another kind of feminist, the chameleon or
inteLLectualadventurer feminist, who claims herself to be a feminist in
front of the culturally and intellectually fashionable mainstream public, and changes her colours aceording to the needs of the audience,
but looks down on feminist activists, refusing, in some cases, to even
speak with them. These strategies and behaviours may have the negative effect of diminishing the credibility of authentic ferninist voices,
which at the same time fight to survive the patriarchal backlash.
Cultural Strategies
In her book, Justice [nterruptus, Nancy Fraser characterises the "postsocialist" condition by noting:
"An absence of any credible overarching emancipatory
project des pite the proliferation of front of struggle; a
general decoupling of the cultural politics of recognition
from the social politics of redistribution; and a decentering of claims for equality in the face of aggressive
marketization

and sharply rising material."

Cultural theorising is largely dissociated from social theorizing; intellcctual life mirrors the practical de-coupling of the politics of recogrution from the politics of redistribution that occurs in social life.

SEMINAR: "FEMINISMS WI TH AN EASTERN TOUCH"

lljJ

Theories of recognition and difference tend to ignore distribution, as

if the problernatics of cultural difference have nothing to do with
social equality. In this way, the dissociation of political economy and
culture is not adequately interrogated.
This is ofien overlooked in
analyses of Eastern European contexts, Namely, the historicaI fact that
while we recognise the forward-looking qualities of a liberal ideology
and developed social policy, the fact is that there is very little tradition,
and therefore socialisation practices and knowledge is available for
such social thinking in the region. Consequently, it seems extremely
important to look to the historicaI and cultural discourses that represented force and dynamism in the region (i.e. turn of the 19th century cultural traditions). Turn of the century traditions in culture.)
Recognition of Feminist Cultural Memory
One possible future line of thinking and strategy should take into
account the possibility of more-powerful cultural institution building
set against NGO-ization.
Cultural institution building may refer to
the "creation of relationships of meaning by fitting together the
action-oriented perspectives of individual actors". This description
entails above ali a focus on the creation of shared meaning among a
diversity of individuals Cultural institution building would temprarily reduce the complexity and difference among feminisms for the
purpose of developing a common agenda, strategy and interveotion.
Cultural institution building could go hand in hand with the translation of cultural symbols and my ths ioto political meanings and
actions, by doing so challenged the western traditional separation
between aesthetics and politics. In this respect, Modern Hungarian
feminism has inherited abundant ammunition from the past to revive
the undeservingly neglected cultural feminist thought. HistoricaI
Hungarian feminism evolved as a consequence of social changes that
placed women's education and wornen's culture in the mainstream of
national social progress, Towards the end of 19th century several
trends of feminist thinking (radical, socialist, religio us and cultural)
emerged. Women's position and education were topical cultural issues
existing along with the socio-political feminist discussion. As in the
18th century Hungary, women became the topic ofliterary life and of
journalism in the first decades of 20th century. The summary of the

l'flJ

SEMINAR: "FEMINISMS WITH AN EASTERN TOUCH"

vanaus disputes about women's identity and status is provided In

Margit Kaffka's The Issue ofWoman:
"She must become a person, in whose character values such as
honesty, reliability, responsibility, discretion, and generosity
must equal with the womanly charm she possesses. She must
be able to grow, to straighten up, and to place her point of balance and her values in herself, and not to the liking of man ...
And above all, she must find herself, she rnust dig out and
bring to the surf ace those long-hidden life energies and values
which she owes the world and without which the world IS
emptier and uglier."
Diversity of Discourses - The "Carnival" ofViews and Visions
In the discussion of theories, perspectives, ideals and ideas appearing
in the intersection of old and new Eastern and Western influences and
the permissiveness of the emotional and intellectual worlds in
Hungarian cultural tradition, Bakhtin's concepts of the carnu/al and
the grotesque seem apt as gu id ing notions. Although the terms were
used by Bakhtin to conceptualise social formations, social conflict, and
the realm of the political, they are applicable to descriptions of sociocultural phenomena as well. Bakhtin identifies the term carnival with
ritual spectacles: feasts, pageants, and marketplace festivals and the
verbal and communicative behaviour of the public during these festivals. The laughter and unconstrained speech associated with carnival
spectacles in the MiddIe Ages was, aceording to Bakhtin, entirely positive. Bakhtin's focus on the carnival in early modern Europe contains
a eritique of modernity and its stylistic effects as aradicai diminishment of the possibilities of human freedom and cultural production.
He considers the culture of modernity to be as austere and bitterly isolating as the official religiaus culture of the Middie Ages, which he
contrasts with the joy of heterogeneity of carnival and the carnivalesque style and spirit. The masks and voices of carnival resists, exaggera te, and destabilise the distinctions and bo unda ries that mark and
maintain the cultural standards and organised society. Carnival refuses to surrender the critical and cultural tools of the dominant class,
and in this sense, carnival can be seen, above ali, as a site ofinsurgency,
and not merely a withdrawal. The leitmotifs of carniual and of the

SEMINAR: "FEMINISMS WITH AN EASTERN TOUCH"

Im

grotesque keep reappearing in different forms of expression and artistic creation and metaphorical discussions of the epistemological and
social and cultural meanings of Eastern European and European
existence.
Productions of culture, in Western European terms, often overlook
slower, more contemplative and less agent-drven mode ls of cultural
"evolution", such as those found in some Eastern European contexts.
Ultimately, cultural my ths might be just as "productive". In closing,
Estella Lauter's com ments in Women as Mythmakers should catch the
attention of those who are interested in the analysis of the evolving
cultural life of post-Commuriist
countries of Central Eastern
European:
"In the midst of a culture that still wants desperately to define
once and for all time "what-is," it is difficult to establish an
alternative mind-set that will allow us to move behind our cultural stage into the wings of female experience without clairning that we have found the essential nature of wornan. 1
believe, however, that a feminist archetypal theory could help
us to accomplish this task. If we redefine the archetype as a tendency to form images in relation to recurrent experiences and
we acknowledge that women as weil as men must have this
capacity, we need only uncover enough images erested by
women to discover the patterns in our experiences. If we think
of my th as a structure for dealing with shared crises of self-detinition in the face of the unknown, we need only locate my thic stories create by women in order to know which of our experiences have been most critical orenduring. The efficacy of this
strategy depends on our willingness to redefine the uriconscious (which at present seems to be a Freudian "text" ra ther
than a human phenomenon)
as the unknown within us
instead of being simply a storehouse of repressed materials. It
also depends on our willingness to challenge the prevailing
idea that everything can be explained in terms of a semiotic
modeL"

um

SEMINAR: "FEMINIZMI

NA ISTOCNI NACIN"
SEMINAR: "FEMINIZMI

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