ISSN 2084–1418
The paper edition of the Anthropology of History Yearbook is the definitive version
2016, No. (9), Cultural Heritage
Jennifer Ramme
Symbolic mothering. Genealogical narratives as a peripheralization practice
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Keywords: feminism, Poland, history politics, genealogy, peripheralization
Abstract: The article takes up on the problem of genealogical narratives of influence produced by nongovernmental feminist environments aiming for social change. The focus of this article lies on mother-daughter narratives and its function as a centralization and marginalization practice. A hypothesis is that such narratives serve the legitimization and stabilizing of present and future positionings of feminist actors in relation to each others. There are many possible factors enabling the establishment of successful narratives of influence, such as for example geographical location or privileges resulting from certain identity categorization. In this text selected disputes (such as a debate on a waves chronology of “Polish feminism”) and events (such as the 8 of March demonstration “Manifa” in Warsaw) serves to analyze the problem of setting narratives of influence, with a perspective on specific fields and types of feminist activism in the 2000s in Poland. The aim oft his article to open up the floor for a reflection on history politics, as well in cases when history is produced as an emancipatory or counter-history. Instead of applying single time-lines of genealogical cause-effect narratives bound to figures of leaders, the author proposes a multiplication of perspectives and urges to pay more attention to social-political contexts and processes, as a possible reason for the emergence of multiple, collective (counter-)actions.
About Author:
JENNIFER RAMME - research assistant and lecturer at Faculty of Social and Cultural Sciences at European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany at the Chair of German-Polish Cultural and Literary Relations and Gender Studies. E-mail: ramme[at]europa-uni.de
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