CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2010
| Author | Kuslits, Anna |
|---|---|
| Title | CONSTRUCTING "POSTNESS": A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE RHETORIC OF FEMINIST CRITICISM IN VISUAL ARTS IN POST-SOCIALIST HUNGARY |
| Summary | This thesis examines the role of feminist discourse in constructing post-socialist identity in Hungary in the 1990s, with a focus on the field of visual arts. I concentrate on how cultural phenomena recognized as feminist in the given context are turned into a tool to mark post-socialist transition as a rupture. The object of my analysis is a limited body of critical texts that reflect on the position of feminism in Hungary in general, and feminism in visual arts in particular. Looking at this rather marginal discourse, I focus on two tropes that are central to how feminism positions itself: “mental Walls” and “anachronistic Modernism”. These terms are used to describe the Hungarian cultural context perceived as hostile and resistant to a gender-sensitive perspective on (visual) art. I examine the function of these rhetorical devices as gestures by which feminism establishes its own legitimacy. In doing so, I map out the ideological constructions of history and geopolitical location that inform feminist discourse in the Hungarian context conceived in terms of binary oppositions between East/West and socialism/post-socialism. The negative positioning of feminist discourse in the local context as a missing or failed feminism foregrounds a set of internal paradoxes that open up the site for critical reflection on these ideological divisions. |
| Supervisor | Timar, Eszter |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2010/kuslits_anna.pdf |
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