CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
| Author | Namasbek kyzy, Aisuluu |
|---|---|
| Title | Representation of Kyrgyz women in Kyrgyz Soviet Magazine Kyrgyzstan Ayaldary |
| Summary | This thesis explores the representation of Kyrgyz women in the Soviet Kyrgyz magazine Kyrgyzstan Ayaldary (Women of Kyrgyzstan). The main question of the thesis is how the magazine presented the Kyrgyz woman to its readers in the early 1960s. I analyze the main discussions, topics, and issues that were raised in the magazine in order to find out how the Kyrgyz magazine defined and presented women’s emancipation. This thesis also explores what the journal can tell us about Kyrgyz women cooperating in or resisting the emancipation process. My research is based on an analysis of the Kyrgyz Soviet magazine Kyrgyzstan Ayaldary, for the years of 1960, 1961, and 1962. In order to contextualize my topic, I first provide some historical background about the Soviet Union, the gender component of Bolshevik ideology and Soviet Central Asia. In Chapter 2, I analyze the main issues that were important for the magazine, which included working mothers’ issues, the fight against Kyrgyzstan’s so-called feudal past, women in public life, and women and religion. After establishing how the magazine defined and approached women’s emancipation, in Chapter 3 I analyze the magazine on whether women in the early 1960s embraced or resisted the emancipation process. Historian Sheila Fitzpatrick has coined the term “top-down” approach for the way in which many scholars have looked at the Soviet Union, assuming an all-mighty state that imposed its will on its subjects, and leaving them without any agency. In chapter 3, I use her concept and Said’s notion of Orientalism to guide my analysis in terms of women’s cooperation with or resistance to the emancipation process. Through the letters, interviews and articles published in the magazine, it was clear that women did embrace the Soviet policies and laws concerning women’s issues such as laws on marriage and divorce, and actively participated in the fight against the so-called crimes based on customs. There is lot of evidence t in the magazine for the cooperation of women in the emancipation process, however there was almost no information on how women resisted it, which may have been due to the nature of the journal |
| Supervisor | de Haan, Francisca |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/namasbek_aisuluu.pdf |
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