Sleeping with the Political Enemy: Woman’s Place in Discourses of Race and Class Struggle in 20th Century Central Europe

Authors

  • Dániel Bolgár ELTE, Budapest

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/ahea.2011.34

Keywords:

class struggle, misogyny, racism, Vienna, political enemy

Abstract

In this paper, I shall argue that the convergence of ideologies operating through the creation of enemies like racism and Bolshevism with discourses regulating gender relations in the Central Europe of the twentieth century had the grave consequence of questioning women’s position in the political community. In short, I shall argue that in the context of racist and Bolshevik discourses, the very fact of being female was in itself a political threat to women. To demonstrate my point, I shall discuss two recent publications. First, I shall analyze the context of the convergence of racist and misogynist discourses in turn-of-the-century Vienna through discussing András Gerő’s book, Neither Woman Nor Jew. Second, I shall explore how the discourse of class struggle affected the political status of Hungarian women in the Stalinist era through discussing Eszter Zsófia Tóth’s book, Kádár’s Daughters.

Author Biography

Dániel Bolgár, ELTE, Budapest

Dániel Bolgár is Lecturer in the Department of Economic and Social History at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. Previously he was an Assistant Research Fellow in the Department of Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at Eötvös Loránd University. He received his M.A. in History at Eötvös Loránd University and is preparing his PhD dissertation on the patterns of inequalities between Jews and non-Jews in Hungary. He works in social and cultural history of modern Hungary, especially interethnic relations and political discourses of the socialist period. His research interest also includes the theoretical problems of history.

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Published

2011-01-01

Issue

Vol. 4 (2011)

Section

Gender Cluster - Articles

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