Essay Instructions: This is a HISTORY paper examining the theories of nationalism and specifically looking at gender and the nation. The goal is to answer the theoretical question of "Do policies of nationalist gov'ts modernize gender relations or do they represent a traditionalist aim to preserve or reestablish unequal and 'pre-modern' gender relations, in effect archaizing gender relations?" Another important goal is to connect this to a more specific question of "How does the notion of women as biological reproducers of the nation influence reproductive choices of women and nationalist agendas behind reproductive policy in socialist and postsocialist Poland?"
This paper is largely based on theories of nationalism and gender and the nation (Nira Yuval-Davis). The structure of the paper should follow:
1) hook
2) thesis statement
3) secondary literature (thematizing it and setting up my project in terms of other literature)
4) theoretical framework (explaining different theories and how they're useful in examining my question)
5) talk about primary sources (explaining them and their limitations and the selection method)
6) restate thesis and give context
7) prove argument/attempt to answer question with secondary and primary sources
8) conclusion (restate thesis, being speculative is ok, also future research or what someone else could do in this field)
Also, primary sources are REQUIRED for this paper (roughly 5 or 6 would be good). They can be newspaper articles, government reports/documents, actual reproductive POLICIES (highly encouraged), and women advocacy group reports (such as UN WomenWatch population reports).
In addition to what I will send by email, here is a list of recommended bibliography:
(I will send this) Albanese, Patricia. “Mothers of the Nation, Guardians of the Hearth: Women, Family and Nationalism in 20th Century Europe” (PhD dissertation, University of Michigan Press, 2003).
Baron, Beth. Egypt as a Woman: Nationalism, Gender, and Politics. Berkley: University of California Press, 2005.
Brinker-Gabler, Gisela and Sidonie Smith, ed. Writing New Identities: Gender, Nation, and Immigration in Contemporary Europe. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997.
Hutchinson, John and Anthony D. Smith, ed. Nationalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Kligman, Gail. The Politics of Duplicity: Controlling Reproduction in Ceausescu’s Romania. Berkley: University of California Press, 1998.
(I will send this) Mishtal, Joanna Z. “Contradictions of Democratization: The Politics of Reproductive Rights and Policies in Postsocialist Poland” (PhD dissertation, University of Colorado, 2006).
Ramet, Sabrina P., ed. Gender Politics in the Western Balkans: Women and Society in Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Successor States. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 1999.
(I will send this) Tammeveski, Peeter. “Reproducing the Gendered and Racialized Body of the Nation-State: Changing Discourses of Estonian National Identity in the Homeland and Diaspora” (PhD dissertation, Pennsylvania State University, 2005).
Wilford, Rick and Robert L. Miller, ed. Women, Ethnicity, and Nationalism: The Politics of Transition. London: Routledge, 1998.
Yuval-Davis, Nira. Gender & Nation. London: SAGE Publications Ltd., 1997.
Yuval-Davis, Nira and Floya Anthias, ed. Woman – Nation – State. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989.
There are faxes for this order.