Abstrakt
20 years after the fall of communism in former Czechoslovakia there are gender studies programmes available at two biggest state universities, a plethora of NGOs engaging in various aspects of social life stressing different, sometimes competing streams of feminist theory as well as a number of more or less independent activists and scholars. This diverse landscape has come into existence as a result of complex forces such as foreign donors, gendered impact of economic transformation, and last but not least highly negative attitude of majority Czech society towards feminism.
Such developments together with rich feminist history prior to the communist rule and the communist emancipation project should logically lead to formulation of specific feminist theoretical stances. Possibly, these could even address the call voiced by Rosi Braidotti at this year’s Futures of Feminism conference (London) for development of radically new imaginations of future.
Trying to address the above-mentioned issues, the paper will present the results of a study of theoretical leanings of contemporary Czech feminists based on an in-depth analysis of the discourses they have produced over the past twenty years. Emphasis will be put on theoretical claims and their actual application.
This analysis will be coupled by interviews with representatives of the movement. The aim of the research is to show how (and if) the theoretical leanings reflect the communist legacy, the work of early Czechoslovak feminists as well as current strands of feminist thought abroad.
The question whether post-socialist developments have led to the emergence of more or less independent regional feminist theories or whether they rather only slightly amend western theories will be addressed. Finally, the issue of feminist activism and/versus academism will be dealt with questioning the relevancy of this binary.