1. Discussion on the representations of lesbian women (and LGBT in general) in the mainstream histories. Special focus will be put to the Communist time.
- Lecture:: Lesbians as a Metaphorical Threat to the Hetero-normative National Order? History of Sexualities, Politics and Cinema under Communism in Eastern Europe (about the First Mainstream lesbian Film in Eastern Europe)
Is there a history of lesbian life under communism? Or it is still to be written? And if so, why this would be important? To what extent the re-telling of the story of lesbian art, activism, and literature in the Eastern Europe during communism may constitute a valid narrative in understanding our contemporaneity? In order to answer these questions, the lecture goes back to the 1982 film Another Way by Karoly Makk, the story of lesbian relationship during communism, based on a semi-autobiographical novella Another Love (Törvényen belül) by Erzsebet Galgoczi (1930-89). Following the presentation of the historical context of this production, its impact and reception, the lecture will analyse the attitude to homosexuality in the Eastern European communist settings and will discuss the subject of writing, discovering and establishing the history of same-sex women desire, relationship and activity as threatening the dominating heterosexual lenses. Finally, the lecture will try to assess the importance of telling the history of culture from the non-heterosexual perspective for today’s audience.
Keywords: Karoly Makk, Lesbian representation, Eastern Europe and Lesbian movement,
Methods: Lecture with power-point presentation and a presentation of the film (DVD)
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2. Readings
- Reading texts (compulsory, later to be used in the assignments - see the final lectures and our assessment arrangements)
Anikó Imre, Lesbian Nationalism, (Winter 2008), Signs, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 255-282.
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Kevin Moss & Mima Simić, Post-Communist Lavender Menace: Lesbians in Mainstream East European Film (2011) Journal of Lesbian Studies, 15:3, pp. 271-283.
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