Summary / Abstract: Popular culture entered the academic realm in the 1980s, and the first academic courses on this subject emerged in the 1990s. Bearing in mind the specific historical setting, this paper presents an account of the teaching of popular culture as part of core bachelor (“Cultural Theory”) and master (“Cultural Studies”) degree courses at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade. The courses are designed to offer a critical understanding of culture from the standpoint of cultural studies. The main challenge in teaching these courses is encouraging students to “take popular culture seriously” and critically reflect on the theories and politics involved in various approaches to popular culture. We realized that while students do not entirely dismiss the idea that popular culture is relevant and worthy of academic analysis, they mostly tend to adhere to a simplified interpretation of Adorno’s work on cultural industries as the only meaningful framework for analysing popular culture. In this sense, most students perceive culture worth of attention as academic art, as Adorno would put it, not even as high modernist (or postmodernist) art and indeed not as popular culture. In such a reduced Adornian worldview, popular culture represents an element of contemporary society that, in an academic sense, serves as a mere indication tool for the measurement of how much the contemporary cultural situation has fallen from its (imagined) grace, rather than as a “thing” (let alone a process) which should merit academic interest in its own right. This indicates the perilous position of popular culture in Serbian academic settings, which might be related to Serbian postsocialist conditions and long-standing discursive battles over popular culture that have dominated the Serbian cultural landscape since the 1990s.
Keywords: popular culture, higher education, Adorno, socialism, postsocialism
Summary / Abstract: The contemporary use of the New Woman concept involves opening parentheses or footnotes in which the questions that this concept implies, at least in part, are answered: whether there is a single, unambiguous meaning of the term the New Woman; whether the origin of the term is precisely determined; whether it is a transnational phenomenon; and in what ways this term has been used in feminist theory and criticism, that is, whether and how its definition has changed from the standpoint of the history of feminist thought. In other words, in order to use the term the New Woman in the analysis of either a critical/literary text or a social situation, it is necessary to first define what exactly we are talking about. The first part of this text analyzes the origin and meaning of the concept with a focus on women’s and feminist periodicals, as well as the formation of the New Woman’s identity in literature, culture and society, while the second part of the text deals with the connections between political thought, specifically the suffragette movement and the struggle for the right to vote, and the New Woman, as well as with similarities and differences in political attitudes regarding the right to vote, critiques of marriage and sexuality norms between different generations of feminists who were active at the time of the debate about the New Woman.
Keywords: the New Woman, novels about the New Woman, women as political subjects, suffrage, critique of marriage, first wave feminism
Summary / Abstract: The paper explores the conceptualisation of the New Woman ideology within the context of Rebecca West’s works published in The New Freewoman magazine. Through the analysis of Rebecca West’s contributions such as travelogues, literary criticism, and personal essays in the context of feminism and modernism of the early twentieth century, the conclusion arises that her conception of the New Woman is deeply rooted in the philosophy of individualism championed by that magazine. The text also explores themes of female physicality, resistance to religious and moral dogmas, and the relationship between the individual and the broader social context. With this in mind, the New Woman stands out as a fluid term emerging in the twentieth century periodicals through the interweaving of different sociopolitical and philosophical tendencies.
Keywords: the New Woman, Rebecca West, Dora Marsden, The New Freewoman, British women’s periodicals
Summary / Abstract: This paper analyses Herbert George Wells’ novel Ann Veronica and its eponymous heroine through the prism of the New Woman, a fin-de siècle phenomenon that emerged to describe women’s fight for the betterment of their position in society. The first section of the paper offers a review of understanding of the New Woman concept and its main characteristics, after which the focus shifts to H. G. Wells and his stance on the woman question. The main section of the paper presents an analysis of the novel that, due to its subject and talk of free love, sparked controversy upon its publication. The contradictory nature of Wells’ personal views on the position of women is evident in this novel, which has left critics unable to agree on the answer to the question – is Ann Veronica a feminist novel? Although certain feminist characteristics can be noted in Ann Veronica’s beliefs, Wells’ heroine is held back by the convictions of her creator, who shaped her to fit his own image of what the New Woman should be.
Keywords: the New Woman, Ann Veronica, H. G. Wells, Herbert George Wells, feminist criticism, feminism
Summary / Abstract: This paper examines the development and transformation of the myth of woman in Poland at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, focusing on the literary works of two authors – Eliza Orzeszkowa and Zofia Nałkowska. The traditional ideal of the “Polish Mother”, embodied in the role of the protector of the home and patriarchal values, was redefined through social, political, and cultural changes, aligning more closely with the progressive ideal of the New Woman. Through Orzeszkowa’s advocacy for women’s education and legal equality, and Nałkowska’s critique of established social norms and emphasis on the liberation of women’s bodies, sexuality, and identity, the paper highlights the complex relationship between national aspirations and feminist ideals in the Polish context. It also underscores the significant contributions of these two authors to the development of feminist thought in Poland.
Keywords: Polish Mother, the New Woman, Eliza Orzeszkowa, Zofia Nałkowska, feminism in Poland
Summary / Abstract: Although Milena Pavlović Barili’s poetry is not completely unknown, her paintings are more popular and she is recognized primarily as a painter. In this article, I will research the ways in which one of the most famous Serbian artists of the interwar period tried to poetically express herself. The aim is to show how the meaning of the frequent motifs, such as the moon, the hair and the creativity, changes through her poems. The lyrical self is illustrated through these motifs. Also, the themes that are preoccupying Milena Pavlović Barili are not researched enough, so I shall point to the always present feminist issues in her poetry such as women’s right to creativity, freedom and equality. In this article, I aspire to shed new light on Milena Pavlović Barili’s poetry and to explore if and in which ways the lyrical self in her poems can be related to the concept of the New Woman.
Keywords: poetry, lyrical self, the New Woman, Milena Pavlović Barili, the creativity of women
Summary / Abstract: This paper explores different depictions of the New Woman in China. By analyzing how various ideological movements defined this identity, it is concluded that different visions of modernity were imposed through the image of the New Woman. Generally speaking, while the traditional woman was seen as embodying social “backwardness”, the modern woman represented either a call to a better future or a fear of losing one’s own tradition. Furthermore, this paper offers a historical and theoretical development of the New Woman. It first presents the transition from the “talented” woman of the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties to the New Woman of the modern era, while also analyzing the models that influenced her formation. Her development was largely shaped by Henrik Ibsen with his play A Doll’s House, but the impact of Alexandra Kollontai cannot be overlooked either. Kollontai equally drew the attention of the Chinese with her views on sexuality. After describing the “Chinese Noras” and “Iron Girls”, the paper briefly shifts to the work of Ding Ling, who through her literary depictions summarized both certain forms of the New Woman and this subject’s relationship to sexuality. Her works serve as an introduction to the “modern girl”, a figure who stands in contrast to the New Woman or represents her subtype – as one embodies hope, while the other embodies fear. Finally, as a paradigm of this narrative, the film New Woman is discussed, and at the very end, there is a reflection on how much this figure surpassed the boundaries of art and stepped into Chinese reality.
Keywords: modernity, the New Woman, Modern Girl, Chinese Noras, female workers
Summary / Abstract: This article examines the phenomenon of the New Woman in Japan at the beginning of the 20th century and analyses how the idea of modern female identity was shaped in the cultural, political and literary context of the Taishō period (1912–1926). Particular attention was paid to the role of magazines in which women spoke about their position for the first time and opened up discussions about the institution of marriage, sexuality and prostitution. The magazine Bluestockings and the Bluestockings Society represent the key points of this process, but the broader channels of public discourse that enabled the articulation of women’s voices are also considered. The analysis shows that the Japanese New Woman was not a mere imitation of Western models, but an original articulation that corresponded to local social and cultural conditions. The New Woman in Japan reveals the tensions between tradition and modernity, individual liberation and social norms, and contributes to the global understanding of this universal phenomenon.
Keywords:Bluestockings, feminism, Japan, the New Woman, periodicals, Seitō
