Karolina Pospiszil-Hofmańska
Wielogłos, Issue 4 (58) 2023, 2023, pp. 1 - 25
https://doi.org/10.4467/2084395XWI.23.026.18861The purpose of this article is to present selected women’s narratives from the agricultural periphery of Upper Silesia – the Hlučín region. The author focuses on the works of Eva Tvrdá and Anna Malchárková, their self-positioning, the way they tell their stories, and the common elements in their narratives about the indigenous women. Local women had faced multifaceted discrimination throughout the 20th century – partly based on ethnicity and faith, partly based on gender. Raised in a patriarchal culture, they were subjected to its patterns and replicated them. Still, their position vis-à-vis men was ambivalent – they were able to take over their responsibilities, and they also wanted to decide about their reproductive work. Significant for the protagonists of the analyzed texts is their bond with the land, rediscovered by their female descendants. The granddaughters, however, partially change the patterns their grandmothers and mothers developed, breaking the circle of silence and quiet acceptance of their own fate.