Abstracts of Papers
Sladja Blazan:
Gender and Migration in Contemporary Slavic American Literature
Gender-specific aspects of migration and migrant writers are not adequately integrated within the literary discourse. Female immigrant writers from Eastern and Central European countries found their way into the American academic discourse mainly through their autobiographies. Helen Buss opens up a discussion on the positive view women writers have of migration as opposed to their male counterparts. Following these suggestions in my research, however, I have come to realize that it is not possible to present an accurate account because many more East and Central European male migrant writers are available for reading. This is very surprising because women writers constitute the numerical majority of contemporary immigrant writers on the whole in the USA. The question arose if the reason is one of economic art. Some indications lead in that direction. Maria Kuncewicz went back to Poland in order to write there as a "world citizen² just like she did in USA. Most of her writing has not been translated into English. Dubravka Ugresic and Tatyana Tolstaya commute between USA and Holland/Russia, writing about problems with American publishers. None of Izabela Filipiak¹s writing has yet been translated into English. Iva Pekarkova went back to Prag last year. It could be that there is simply a lack of opportunities for Eastern and Central European women writers in USA. However, even in this brief account, when attempting a gender comparison, the main difference would be that of presence and absence. Female writers wrote about things present in their surroundings, male writers mainly about absences. Extreme examples would be David Albahari and Iva Pekarkova. Iva Pekarkova is reminding us in her literature that there is not only a contest between two superpowers but also a series of contests within each of those societies over the definitions of masculinity and femininity that would sustain or dilute that rivalry. In my presentation I would like to focus on these questions by analysing some of the contemporary Slavic American migrant writer's literature.
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