Postcommunism and the Body Politic

by Ellen E. Berry (Editor)

The epidemic of mass rape in the former Yugoslavia has illustrated again, brutally, the inextricable relationship between nat'l politics, sexual politics & body politics. The nexus of these three forces is highly charged in any culture throughout history, but especially so among cultures in which rapid, even cataclysmic, changes in material realities & nat'l self-conceptions are eroding or overwhelming previously secure boundaries. The postcommunist moment in the so-called 2nd World--Central & Eastern Europe & the former USSR--has dramatically exposed the opportunities & dangers that arise when the political, cultural & economic foundations of a society are de-, then restructured. Gender roles & relations, expressions of sexuality or attempts to recontain them, representations of the body, especially female, & the larger, cultural meanings it assumes, are particularly marked sites to witness the performance of complex nat'l dramas of crisis & change. This groundbreaking volume turns its attention to the 2nd World, specifically to such subjects as the birth of the sex media & porn industry in Russia; Russian women & alcoholism; cinema in post-communist Hungary; patriotism & gender in Poland; sexual dissidence in Eastern Europe; & women in the former Yugoslavia.

Genres: Sociology, Politics, Nonfiction

328 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1995