070273 SE Seminar Historical Sources and Critique - Feminist political thought (2023W)

Women’s and feminist political and social thought as a field was a newcomer in intellectual history, especially in the region of Central, Eastern and Southeast Europe. However, the more sources we read from the region, the clearer it becomes that women (and some men) were not only offering original ideas about women’s rights and women’s place in history as well as society, but these insights are a substantial contribution to our understanding of the social and political history of the region and of Europe as well.
The aim of this course is not only to introduce students to texts and their authors most relevant from the history of women’s rights and feminism in the region, but importantly, to teach them how to locate and how to read such sources, when encountered. The course aims at covering the 20th century and offering sources from as many countries as possible. We will read texts by well-known authors such as Clara Zetkin and Vera Figner from the early 20th century; women who were active in the creation of socialist women’s emancipation politics after WWII; critical intellectuals and scholars in the 1960s-1980s; and women coming to terms with 1989 in Central and Eastern Europe, and the war between the successor states of former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
The course is accompanied by the Dubravka Ugrešić Lecture Series, dedicated to the work and memory of the writer and public intellectual Dubravka Ugrešić (1949-2023). Participation at the lectures is recommended, but since they take place in the late afternoon/early evenings, these are not mandatory. First lecture: 11 Oct, 17.00 by Rada Iveković (more info TBA).
All sources which are mandatory readings for the course are in English, but students are encouraged to bring in sources from other languages they read.