Politics of queer life writing in contemporary Poland

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17356/ieejsp.v10i3.1271
Abstract Views: 223 PDF Downloads: 38

Keywords:

queer studies, life writing, Polish literature, memoirs, Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

The article presents the analysis of the first comprehensive volume of memoirs Cała siła, jaką czerpię na życie. Świadectwa, relacje, pamiętniki osób LGBTQ+ [All the Power I Draw for Life. Testimonies, Accounts, Memoirs of LGBTQ+ People in Poland] (2022). It is a landmark volume in many respects. It is the first of its kind, a comprehensive (nearly 1,000 pages) selection of memoirs that were sent to a competition announced in 2020 by the LGBT+ History and Identities Research Laboratory at the Institute of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Warsaw. Therefore, they have become part of the long Polish tradition of diaries written for a competition announced by state institutions, a tradition dating back to the interwar period (diaries of peasants, Jewish youth, the unemployed, etc.). At the same time, the diaries were published at a very politically sensitive moment, when homophobia became an element of global politics, including the construction of East/West European distinctions. The published collection of diaries thus becomes a unique, autonomous and empowered voice of the LGBTQ+ community from Central and Eastern Europe in a contemporary, hostile, geopolitical context.

Author Biographies

Antonina Tosiek, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan

Antonina Tosiek, UAM Poznań, Poland: PhD candidate at the Doctoral School of Adam Mickiewicz University. Her research interests include contemporary critical methodologies, post-dependence, post-colonialism and feminism.. Working on a doctoral dissertation on the diaries of peasant women in the People's Republic of Poland.

Błażej Warkocki, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

Professor of Polish literature at the Adam Mickiewicz University, author of 3 monographs on Polish literature and culture from the perspective of queer theory, co-editor (with Alessandro Amenta and Tomasz Kaliściak) of the volume "Dezorientacje. An Anthology of Polish Queer Literature" (2021).

Lucyna Marzec, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

Lucyna Marzec: feminist critic, researcher of literature and intimacy (Life Writing). She works at the Faculty of Polish and Classical Philology at UAM. At UAM, she co-founded the Center for the Study of Cultural Gender and Identity and the Life Writing Working Group. Editor-in-chief of "Czas Kultury." Author of articles, monographs and editorials.

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Published

2025-01-09

How to Cite

[1]
Tosiek, A., Błażej Warkocki and Lucyna Marzec 2025. Politics of queer life writing in contemporary Poland. Intersections. East European Journal of Society and Politics. 10, 3 (Jan. 2025), 74–89. DOI:https://doi.org/10.17356/ieejsp.v10i3.1271.

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 3 (2024): Unsettling Gender, Sexuality, and the European East/West Divisions

Section

Unsettling Gender, Sexuality, and the European East/West Divisions

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