Feminist Translations in a Socialist Context: The Case of Yugoslavia

This contribution engages with the transnational connections established by second-wave feminists in socialist Yugoslavia. The essay focuses on the writings of Zagreb-based anthropologist Lydia Sklevicky (1952-1990) and Belgrade-based sociologist. Zarana Papic (1949-2002), two founders of women's studies in the region, who were also among the organisers of the first international women's studies seminar, held in Portoroz in 1976 and of the first international second-wave feminist conference, held in Belgrade in 1978. Through the analysis of linguistic and political practices of translations that occurred between the late 1970s and early 1980s, I demonstrate that feminists in Zagreb and Belgrade took an active part in transnational feminist dialogues taking place at the time across Europe and beyond. Texts by feminist authors from the United States, the UK, Italy and France were often translated into Serbo-Croatian, and practices of translation became an integral part of pioneering feminist interventions, contributing to redefinitions of local debates and to the unravelling of patriarchal practices in a socialist society that had allegedly solved its 'woman question'.