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This presentation, based on the second chapter of my dissertation, looks into interplay of class and sexuality in Yugoslav gay and lesbian literature. ‘The homosexual’ and ‘the Yugoslav’, personae in reciprocal relationship, were used to articulate each other. I argue that the titular ‘otherness’ was rearticulated several times in the second half of the 20th century. Moreover, the Yugoslav past is currently being used in imagining a queer future.

The beginnings of socialism were characterised by purging of self-indulgent (homo)sexuality. The collective trauma of anti-homosexual persecutions, exemplified by the circulating story of men marching to Dubrovnik prison while crowds chanted slurs, illustrates the zeitgeist of the era. Their transgressions were not solely sexual – during the trials, these men were accused of a range of class-related offences, such as a taste for decadent poetry, conspiring with the Vatican, and corrupting the working youth of Yugoslavia. The gloomy image of early socialism was partly restored by the post-socialist gay prose. The second part of the presentation deals with the 1980s novels of the Serbian intellectuals Jovan Ćirilov and Biljana Jovanović. It reflects on two motifs in particular – the character of the intellectual and the intertwining of feminism and lesbianism. The reinterpretation of homosexuality as associated with the urban red bourgeoisie led to a split in the emerging gay and lesbian movement.

Finally, I will briefly reflect on the contemporary meaning of Yugoslavia in left queer activism; Queeroslavia as a vision for the future and not as an accurate interpretation of the past.

Bio:

I have a Master’s degree in Comparative Literature from the University of Zagreb and a Master’s degree in Critical Gender Studies from the Central European University. I am currently a 2nd year PhD student at SSEES, where I am researching gay and lesbian prose in the Balkans. I am also working on a chapter on queerness and wordliness for a reader on women's literature for Liverpool University Press.

Image credit: AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions.