Transnational Homosexuals in Communist Poland: Cross-Border Flows in Gay and Lesbian Magazines

ISBN-13: 9783319865058 / Angielski / Miękka / 2018 / 253 str.

Lukasz Szulc

Recenzje

"Through his meticulous and wide-ranging research, lucid prose, and engaging style, Lukasz Szulc pulls back the (pink) Iron Curtain, accompanying readers on a journey through a long hidden and usually inaccessible place in our shared past." (David Weiss, QED A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, Vol. 7 (2), 2020)

"Lukasz Szulc's monograph is the opening volume of a new book series called Global Queer Politics. ... Szulc's book primarily seems to address readers and scholars who are active in the globalizing field of LGBTQ studies ... . Its particular appeal for Polonists and Slavists, in turn, lies in the author's careful and well-documented analysis of the homosexuality-related adaptive and adoptive attitudes and strategies as proposed by the two Polish magazines under discussion." (Kris Van Heuckelom, The Polish Review, Vol. 64 (2), 2019)

 "The book is more likely to be of interest to LGBT and media scholars than to magazine teachers and researchers, but I can imagine it serving as the catalyst for some fascinating dissertations and published research on pre-1989 zines in Central and Eastern Europe. ... the book could serve to fill gaps in knowledge about a life that some of us may have experienced personally but understood only incompletely and one-sidedly." (Miglena Sternadori, Journal of Magazine Media, Vol. 19 (1), 2019)

"Szulc mentions the broader context of east central Europe, yet focuses mainly on Poland. This is understandable, a comparative project would require a group of scholars with different linguistic abilities; ... . The most original and elsewhere unavailable parts of the book are analyses of the east European Information Pool reports ... ." (Piotr Sobolczyk, Slavic Review, Vol. 78, 2019)

"Throughout the book, Szulc amasses and interprets a diverse, astonishingly rich selection of resources. ... Szulc's book is a much-needed introduction to an emerging field of study - a reliable source of diverse historical records, a go-to volume when researching aspects of homosexuality in communist Eastern Europe and, in itself, certainly a fascinating story." (Aleksandra Gajowy, LSE Review of Books, blogs.lse.ac.uk, December, 2017)

Spis treści

1 Introduction: A Sexual Cold War and Its Myths

1.1  Myths and No History

1.2  Unde Venis, CEE?

1.3  Book Structure

 

 

PART I: GLOBAL, EASTERN AND POLISH HOMOSEXUALS

 

2 Globalization of LGBT Identities and Politics

2.1 Global LGBT Identities

2.2 Global LGBT Politics

2.3 The Impact of HIV/AIDS

2.4 Postcolonial and Transnational Responses

2.5 The Forgotten Second World

2.6 Conclusion

 

3 Homosexuality in the Eastern Bloc

3.1 EEIP Reports

3.2 Communism as They Knew It

3.3 State Laws and Practices

3.4 Homosexuality in Public Discourses

3.5 Homosexual Self-Organizing

3.6 Conclusion

 

4 Homosexual Activism in Communist Poland

4.1 The State, Opposition and Church

4.2 Homosexuality before 1980

4.3 Early 1980s: Transnational Origins

4.4 Mid 1980s: Operation Hyacinth

4.5 Late 1980s: Demands for Recognition

4.6 Conclusion

PART II: TRANSNATIONALISM IN GAY AND LESBIAN MAGAZINES

 

5 Polish Gay and Lesbian Magazines<

5.1 Alternative Media and Social Movements

5.2 Transnational Network of Gay and Lesbian Magazines

5.3 Publishing Underground in Communist Poland

5.4 Biuletyn/Etap Magazine

5.5 Filo Magazine

5.6 Conclusion

 

6 (Re)constructing Identities

6.1 Born This Way

6.2 Out and Proud

6.3 The Romantic Self

6.4 The Sexual Self

6.5 The Collective Self

6.6 Conclusion

 

7 (Re)building Politics

7.1 Making an Activist

7.2 Writing Histories

7.3 Vision for the Movement

7.4 Visibility Politics

7.5 Information Activism

7.6 Conclusion

 

 

8 Conclusion<

8.1 Rusted Pink Curtain

8.2 Networked Sexual Globalization

8.3 Hoax Queer Wars

 

 

Timeline

 

Index

 

O autorze

Lukasz Szulc is Marie Curie Individual Fellow in the Media and Communications Department of the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. He has published articles in journals such as Sexualities and contributed chapters to books such as Queer in Europe: Contemporary Case Studies (2011). He is co-editor of the book LGBTQs, Media and Culture in Europe (2017).

Blurb

This book traces the fascinating history of the first Polish gay and lesbian magazines to explore the globalization of LGBT identities and politics in Central and Eastern Europe during the twilight years of the Cold War. It details the emergence of homosexual movement and charts cross-border flows of cultural products, identity paradigms and activism models in communist Poland. The work demonstrates that Polish homosexual activists were not locked behind the Iron Curtain, but actively participated in the transnational construction of homosexuality. Their magazines were largely influenced by Western magazines: used similar words, discussed similar topics or simply translated Western texts and reproduced Western images. However, the imported ideas were not just copied but selectively adopted as well as strategically and creatively adapted in the Polish magazines so their authors could construct their own unique identities and build their own original politics.