Home Social Sciences The Play A Maiden’s Love by Maria Kuncewiczowa as an Example of a Representation of the Subject of Abortion in Polish Interwar Theatre
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The Play A Maiden’s Love by Maria Kuncewiczowa as an Example of a Representation of the Subject of Abortion in Polish Interwar Theatre

  • Marcelina Obarska ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: February 21, 2025

Abstract

Reproductive rights in Poland have been subject to fight for more than a hundred years. Since Polish independence in 1918, the topic of abortion has been present in literary forms of female artistic expression. One such play is A Maiden’s Love written by Maria Kuncewiczowa in 1932. The protagonist, a young woman named Inka, faces a weighty choice of whether to maintain the pregnancy having been left alone with this decision by her partner. In 1932 the piece was staged in Teatr Maly in Warsaw and widely discussed in the newspapers and magazines. It was also a year when a new penal code was established and abortion was criminalized. The Maiden’s Love conveys that theater can be considered as a form of social relation and that it is inherently interwoven with socio-political and economic discourse. In this paper, I would like to analyse Kuncewiczowa’s strategies for representing the subject of abortion as well as the reception and the critical discourse around of the play from Teatr Maly. I would also like to demonstrate the political potentialites in melodrama.


Corresponding author: Marcelina Obarska, 49605 University of Warsaw , Doctoral School of Humanities, Warszawa, Poland, E-mail:
All individuals listed as authors qualify as authors and have approved the submitted version. Their work is original and is not under consideration by any other journal. They have permission to reproduce any previously published material

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Received: 2024-06-15
Accepted: 2025-02-06
Published Online: 2025-02-21
Published in Print: 2025-04-28

© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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