NIECZYTELNOŚĆ, OBCOŚĆ, AUTENTYCZNOŚĆ. KOBIETY NIEHETEROSEKSUALNE W PRL I W CZASIE TRANSFORMACJI
Illegibility, Otherness, Authenticity. Non-heterosexual Women in the People's Republic of Poland at The time of Systemic Transformation

Author(s): Magdalena Staroszczyk
Subject(s): Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Pre-WW I & WW I (1900 -1919), Interwar Period (1920 - 1939), WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Post-War period (1950 - 1989), Transformation Period (1990 - 2010)
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: self-identity; (in)visibility; non-heterosexual women; authenticity; illegibility
Summary/Abstract: This essay explores methodological dilemmas emerging from research on the experience of non-heterosexual women, as narrated by them in interviews. Their self-identification is the subject of reflection here: some, but not all, self-identify as lesbians. It is argued that the concept of “invisibility”, which has dominated scholarship on the topic, needs to be re-examined in light of these self-narratives and replaced with “illegibility”, a category derived from the analyzed interviews, thus responding to calls for epistemic justice. It implies that, in a given culture, not only is the representation of a given experience lacking, but that it remains unrecognized even when it is visible.

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