Voices from Silence? Reflections on 'Coming out' in Socialist Czechoslovakia

Bibliographic Data

ID3645142
AuthorsJaroslava Hasmanová Marhánková (0000-0003-4823-8934, Charles University, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume68
Issue13
Pages2214-2233
Publication date2021-11-10
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Homosexuality (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0091-8369 • E-ISSN: 1540-3602
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00918369.2020.1804252
PMID32795217
OpenAlexW3049540438
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited14

The region of Central and Eastern Europe and oppressive social conditions in former socialist society often became symbols of the impossibility to articulate non-heterosexual identities under the conditions of a totalitarian regime. This study analyzes data from 19 in-depth interviews with people older than 50 living in the Czech Republic who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, or bisexual. It focuses on the ways in which their forced silence and inability to speak about their sexual desires resonated throughout their biographical narratives. The first part of this paper focuses on themes surrounding the absence of representations of non-heterosexual identities in socialist Czechoslovakia's public sphere and the impact of this absence on participants' perceptions of their own life experiences. The second part of the paper analyzes the ways in which participants relate to their own coming out and their reflections on their previous lives in relation to newfound opportunities to live outside of heterosexual norms. The paper strives to problematize the concept of "silence" as one of the defining features of this generation, in contrast with the concept of coming out as a sign of emancipation in younger generations

Aesthetics · Czech · Emancipation · Homosexuality · Impossibility · Lesbian · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Public sphere · Relation (database · Sign (mathematics · Silence · Sociology · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · European history and politics · Gender Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Law