BookShared
  • MEMBER AREA    
  • How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed

    (By Slavenka Drakulić)

    Book Cover Watermark PDF Icon Read Ebook
    ×
    Size 27 MB (27,086 KB)
    Format PDF
    Downloaded 668 times
    Last checked 14 Hour ago!
    Author Slavenka Drakulić
    “Book Descriptions: Hailed by feminists and scholars as one of the most important contributions to women's studies in recent decades, Slavenka Drakulic’s gripping, beautifully written account—newly reissued in paperback—describes the daily struggles of women under the Marxist regime in the former republic of Yugoslavia.

    In this provocative, acutely observed essay collection, renowned journalist, novelist, and non-fiction writer Slavenka Drakulic writes with wit and heart about her experiences under communism—as well as those of other Eastern Europeans, primarily women, who lived and suffered behind the Iron Curtain. A portrayal of the reality behind the rhetoric, her essays also chronicle the consequences of these regimes: The Berlin Wall may have fallen, but ideology cannot be dismantled so quickly, and a lifetime lived in fear cannot be so easily forgotten.

    Many of the pieces focus on the intense connection Drakulic discovers between material things and the expression of one’s spirit, individuality, and femininity—an inevitable byproduct of a lifestyle that, through its rejection of capitalism and commoditization, ends up fetishizing both. She describes the moment one man was able, for the first time in his life, to eat a banana: He gobbled it down, skin and all, enthralled by its texture. Drakulic herself marvels at finding fresh strawberries in N.Y.C. in December, and the feel of the quality of the paper in an issue of Vogue.

    As Drakulic delves into the particular hardships facing women—who are not merely the victims of sexism, but of regimes that prevent them from having even the most basic material means by which to express themselves—she describes the desperate lengths to which they would go to find cosmetics or clothes that made them feel feminine in a society where such a feeling was regarded as a bourgeois affectation. There is small room for privacy in communal housing, and the banishment of many time-saving devices, combined with a focus on manual labor, meant women were slaves to domestic responsibility in a way that their Western peers would find unfathomable. From this vantage point, she provides a pointed critique of Western feminism as a movement borne out of privilege.

    How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed is a compelling, brilliant account of what it was really like to live under Communist rule and its inevitable repercussions.”

    Google Drive Logo DRIVE
    Book 1

    راهنمای مردن با گیاهان دارویی

    ★★★★★

    عطیه عطارزاده

    Book 1

    Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968

    ★★★★★

    Heda Margolius Kovály

    Book 1

    A Philosophy of Loneliness

    ★★★★★

    Lars Fredrik Händler Svendsen

    Book 1

    همسایه‌ها

    ★★★★★

    Ahmad Mahmoud

    Book 1

    سال بلوا

    ★★★★★

    Abbas Maroufi

    Book 1

    سمفونی مردگان

    ★★★★★

    Abbas Maroufi

    Book 1

    Suvashun

    ★★★★★

    Simin Daneshvar

    Book 1

    Сараєво для початківців

    ★★★★★

    Ozren Kebo

    Book 1

    سخت پوست

    ★★★★★

    ساناز اسدی

    Book 1

    یوزپلنگانی که با من دویده‌اند

    ★★★★★

    بیژن نجدی

    Book 1

    روح پراگ

    ★★★★★

    Ivan Klíma

    Book 1

    جای خالی سلوچ

    ★★★★★

    Mahmoud Dowlatabadi

    Book 1

    انتری که لوطی‌اش مرده بود و داستانهای دیگر

    ★★★★★

    Sadegh Chubak

    Book 1

    همنوایی شبانه‌ی ارکستر چوبها

    ★★★★★

    رضا قاسمی

    Book 1

    آدم‌خواران

    ★★★★★

    Jean Teulé

    Book 1

    فلسفه‌ی ترس

    ★★★★★

    Lars Fredrik Händler Svendsen