“I Am Jugoslovenka!” : Feminist Performance Politics During and After Yugoslav Socialism

Through the author’s invocation of the figure Jugoslovenka (Yugoslav woman), this book reveals feminist performance politics in art and culture to be central to socialist Yugoslavia and traces that feminist legacy to the contemporary post-socialist era. The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945–1992) provides one of the most intriguing examples of women’s emancipatory power during twentieth-century socialism. The most politically West-leaning of all the socialist countries during the Cold War, Yugoslavia became a place where women enjoyed extraordinary legal rights and social mobility, including access to education and labor mobility. The book tells this remarkable story of women’s emancipation during socialism, and also highlights its importance during and after the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s. Theorizing the concept of Jugoslovenka as the radical embodiment of Yugoslavia’s antifascist, transnational, and feminist legacies, this book offers analyses of celebrated and lesser-known artists from the 1970s until today, including the now legendary performance artist Marina Abramović, along with stories of female snipers, music legends Lepa Brena and Esma Redžepova, and contemporary feminist artists forced to live in the Yugoslav diaspora during/after the wars. Based on archival work, interviews, and in-depth visual analyses, this book tells the unique story of Yugoslav women’s resistance through the intersection of feminism, socialism, and patriarchy in visual culture. Discussing multiple media, such as war photographs, music videos, samizdat publications, performance and conceptual art, along with traditional paintings and film, the book will serve as an invaluable resource for researchers of women’s cultural work in the region. “I am Jugoslovenka” argues that queer-feminist artistic and political resistance were paradoxically enabled by socialist Yugoslavia's unique history of patriarchy and women's emancipation. Spanning performance and conceptual art, video works, film and pop music, lesbian activism and press photos of female snipers in the Yugoslav wars, the book analyses feminist resistance in a range of performative actions that manifest the radical embodiment of Yugoslavia's anti-fascist, transnational and feminist legacies. It covers celebrated and lesser-known artists from the 1970s to today, including Marina Abramovic, Sanja Ivekovic, Vlasta Delimar, Tanja Ostojic, Selma Selman and Helena Janecic, along with music legends Lepa Brena and Esma Redžepova. “I am Jugoslovenka” tells a unique story of women's resistance through the intersection of feminism, socialism and nationalism in East European visual culture. 'I am Jugoslovenka' argues that queer-feminist artistic and political resistance were paradoxically enabled by socialist Yugoslavia's unique history of patriarchy and women's emancipation. Spanning performance and conceptual art, video works, film and pop music, lesbian activism and press photos of female snipers in the Yugoslav wars, the book analyses feminist resistance in a range of performative actions that manifest the radical embodiment of Yugoslavia's anti-fascist, transnational and feminist legacies. It covers celebrated and lesser-known artists from the 1970s to today, including Marina Abramovic, Sanja Ivekovic, Vlasta Delimar, Tanja Ostojic, Selma Selman and Helena Janecic, along with music legends Lepa Brena and Esma Redzepova. 'I am Jugoslovenka' tells a unique story of women's resistance through the intersection of feminism, socialism and nationalism in East European visual culture Front matter Dedication Contents List of figures Acknowledgments Introduction: Jugoslovenka: the unique position of Yugoslav women during and after socialism Jugoslovenka’s body under patriarchal socialism: art and feminist performance politics in Yugoslavia Marina Abramović, Lepa Brena, and Esma Redžepova: socialist nation, Orientalism, and Yugoslav legacy Queer Jugoslovenka Jugoslovenka in a sea of avant-garde machismo: a feminist reading of NSK The last generation of Jugoslovenkas: diverse forms of emancipatory resistance and performance strategies Conclusion: Jugoslovenka: a wide-ranging model for feminist performance politics in art and culture List of interviews and correspondence Bibliography Index Coining the term “Jugoslovenka” to designate the unique history of Yugoslav women’s resistance to patriarchy during and after socialism, this book shows how Yugoslavia’s anti-fascist, transnational and feminist legacies manifest in performance, conceptual, video and activist works. -- .