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.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Introduction
- Research Articles
- I Rethink. Objects, models, and methods in Humanities and Social Sciences since the invasion of Ukraine
- From Neopatrimonial Science to Consumption of Academic Degrees: The Case of Political Science in Ukraine
- Quality of Life in the Hetmanate and Left-Bank Ukraine in the 18th–19th Centuries: Between ‘Subjective’ Narratives and ‘Objective’ Markers
- In a Stranger’s House: Social Isolation of Internally Displaced People in Ukraine During Wartime
- The Effects of Sensory Language in Human Trafficking Survival Storytelling: An Empirical Study
- II Facing Familiar Violence
- Who Actually Killed the “Angel in the House”? Love, War and Independence in Zofia Nałkowska and Virginia Woolf
- The Play A Maiden’s Love by Maria Kuncewiczowa as an Example of a Representation of the Subject of Abortion in Polish Interwar Theatre
- Dehumanization Practices: Effects of Violence on Self-Identity in Diana Balyko’s Plays
- Report
- Export of Cultural Property from Ukraine: State Policy and the Challenges of War
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Introduction
- Research Articles
- I Rethink. Objects, models, and methods in Humanities and Social Sciences since the invasion of Ukraine
- From Neopatrimonial Science to Consumption of Academic Degrees: The Case of Political Science in Ukraine
- Quality of Life in the Hetmanate and Left-Bank Ukraine in the 18th–19th Centuries: Between ‘Subjective’ Narratives and ‘Objective’ Markers
- In a Stranger’s House: Social Isolation of Internally Displaced People in Ukraine During Wartime
- The Effects of Sensory Language in Human Trafficking Survival Storytelling: An Empirical Study
- II Facing Familiar Violence
- Who Actually Killed the “Angel in the House”? Love, War and Independence in Zofia Nałkowska and Virginia Woolf
- The Play A Maiden’s Love by Maria Kuncewiczowa as an Example of a Representation of the Subject of Abortion in Polish Interwar Theatre
- Dehumanization Practices: Effects of Violence on Self-Identity in Diana Balyko’s Plays
- Report
- Export of Cultural Property from Ukraine: State Policy and the Challenges of War