(Post-)Yugoslav feminist periodicals and their global cultural and literary context

Project lead: Dr. Elena Messner (FWF Elise-Richter-Grant, 2023-2027)

Drawing on the theoretical foundations of Literary Sociology, (Feminist) Translation Studies, Periodical Studies, South Slavic and Gender Studies, the proposed research project aims to contribute to the heated debates about concepts of “World Literatures” by focusing on the (post) Yugoslav literary and cultural context through the feminist and decolonial lens.

The goal is to combine historical, economic, political, and philological perspectives on the translation, circulation, and reception of women-centered literature, to produce an elaborated bibliography and a database, that enable the search for translations offered in the journals, producing empirically relevant statistical data, which will then be analyzed and interpreted. The project will offer new insights to the theory of feminist translation, literary theory and canonization; it will provide research on the history of Yugoslav (feminist) periodicals and it will position Yugoslav cultural feminist activism in a global context.

The project focuses on the transfer of women’s and/or feminist “World Literatures” resp. “global literatures” to the Yugoslav region resp. to the South Slavic countries in the 20^th century. The concept of “World Literatures”, one of the most disputed terms in the contemporary cultural historical research field, will be understood as the idea of a literary canon beyond national contexts, which is characterized by translation and its immanent geopolitical, economic, and gender power structures. The focus on Yugoslavia, a state – or states – at the crossroads of East and West, of “small” (resp. “marginalized”) and “large” (resp. “dominant”) cultures, will allow not only the development of new perspectives on the hegemonic canonization of literature, but also on the dominant notions of “western”, esp. European feminism.

The study will examine important periods of the (ex-)Yugoslav literary tradition by focusing on the political contexts of feminist strategies of canonization and translation in turbulent times: in one century the south Slavic region experienced four wars (Balkan wars, First World War, Second World War, and the post-Yugoslav wars at the end of the 20^th century, that led to the dissolution of the SFRJ) as well as various state ideologies and different forms of government: Capitalism in the frame of Monarchism (Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes 1918–1929 / Kingdom of Yugoslavia, 1929–1941), Communism within the Socialist Republic (SFR Yugoslavia, 1945–1991/1995/1999), and transitional Capitalism (various post-Yugoslav states since 1991/1995). The historical period in the focus of the study is marked not only by two centennial transitions but also by the creation and dissolution of the Yugoslav state.

One key goal of the project is the digitalization and online-publication (open-access) of some of the most important feminist yugoslav periodicals. To achieve this goal the project lead is working together with several institutions in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia, mostly libraries, universities and archives.

Project partners and research institutions:

Dr. Stanislava Barać, Institute for Literature and Arts in Belgrade

Mag. Goran Lazičić MA, Universität Graz, Institut für Slawistik

Centers for Women’s Studies (Centar za ženske studije) in Zagreb

Ženski studiji “Žarana Papić” in Sarajevo

Autonomous Women’s Center in Belgrade

Archive of Antifascist Struggle of Women of Bosnia and Hercegovina and Yugoslavia founded 2015 in Sarajevo

National Library of Serbia

National Library of Slovenia

National Library of Croatia

www.knjizenstvo.rs

www.afzarhiv.org