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1st Edition

The Transformative Power of Women's Life Writing in Post-Communist Europe East-West Perceptions and Memory

Edited By Simona Mitroiu, Marleen Rensen, Anna Seidl, Ivana Taranenkova, Catherine Teissier Copyright 2027

294 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations

by Routledge

Description

This edited volume explores how women’s life writing from post-Communist Europe turns the continent’s most persistent fault line—the East–West divide—into a space of confrontation, vulnerability, and radical reimagining. Examining personal narratives from seven European countries (Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Germany, France, and the Netherlands), the volume demonstrates how women "write... Read more

Table of Contents

Introduction: East–West Perceptions: Power Dynamics, Memory, and Agency
Anna Seidl, Simona Mitroiu, and Marleen Rensen

Part I. Witnessing, Recognition, and Justice

1. Witnessing, Recognition, and Justice
Catherine Teissier and Simona Mitroiu

2. “My Kind of Visit Home”: Autobiographical Graphic Novels about the Fall of Communism
Catherine Teissier

3. Eastern European Experience in Romanian Women’s Life Writing
Simona Mitroiu

Part II. Resilient and Persistent Subjects in Post-Communist and Post-Translational Life Writing

4. Resilient and Persistent Subjects in Post-Communist and Post-Translational Life Writing
Anna Seidl and Ivana Taranenkova

5. Resilience as Decolonial Practice: (Re)shaping Ukrainian Cultural Identity through “Collective Life Writing”
Anna Seidl

6. Facing Disruptive Forces: Resilient Identities in Slovak Life Narratives
Ivana Taranenková

Part III. Dialogue in Literature: Connecting Worlds and Perspectives

7. Dialogue in Literature: Connecting Worlds and Perspectives
Cristina Godun and Jeremy Fischbach

8. Transcending Boundaries: Intergenerational and Cultural Dialogues in Contemporary Polish Writing
Cristina Godun

9. Dialogue in Autofiction: Representing “Ossis of Color” in 1000 Coils of Fear
Jeremy Fischbach

Part IV. Cultural Mediation and Community

10. Cultural Mediation and Community
Marleen Rensen and Justyna Tabaszewska

11. Migration and Cultural Mediation between Europe’s East and West: Sana Valiulina and Mira Feticu
Marleen Rensen

12. Negotiating between the East and the West: Polish Autobiographical Writing and Cultural Mediation
Justyna Tabaszewska

Part V. Embodied Life Writing: Enactment and Connectedness

13. Embodied Life Writing: Enactment and Connectedness
Vicky J. Fisher, Roxana Lapadat, and Farida Nabibaks

14. Embodied Life Writing: Navigating Decolonial and Post-Communist Patterns of Perception
Vicky J. Fisher and Farida Nabibaks

15. Enactment and Connectedness Through Walking: The Walks by Rimini Protokoll
Roxana Lapadat

Part VI. Dialogic Positionalities: Toward a Reflexive Practice

16. Authors’ Reflections. Intimate Scholarship: Beyond the Gaze?
Anna Seidl, Maleen Rensen, Roxana Lapadat, Catherine Teissier, Ivana Taranenková, Jeremy Fischbach, Cristina Godun, Vicky J. Fisher, Justyna Tabaszewska, Farida Nabibaks, Simona Mitroiu

17. Participatory Roma Research or Camouflaged Objectification? On Epistemic Asymmetries and Exploitation in Academia under the Guise of Good Intentions
Maria Luiza Medeleanu and Nicole Colin

Editor(s)

Biography

Simona Mitroiu is a Senior Researcher at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași, Romania.

Marleen Rensen is an Associate Professor in the Department of European Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

Anna Seidl, a former principal dancer of the HNB (Het National Ballet, Amsterdam), is Senior Researcher at the University of Amsterdam.

Ivana Taranenková is a Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Institute of Slovak Literature at the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava.

Catherine Teissier is a Senior Lecturer for German Studies at Aix-Marseille University, France.

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