Women as Essential Citizens in the Czech National Movement: The Making of the Modern Czech Community

(Hardback)

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This study uses the Czech national movement in the Austrian Empire between the late 1820s and the late 1850s to examine the complex set of social, physical, physiological, and moral requirements through which women became crucial social and political actors responsible for the existence of modern national communities. Situated within the larger frameworks of public and private spheres, contemporary Czech discussions of the positionality of women, and an understanding of the categories of gender and woman as fluid concepts, this book analyzes how Czech nationalistsin relation to and in comparison with other nineteenth-century nationalist movementsproposed that women become the central agents of the process to guarantee the continuity of the nation.

Reviews

The power of language to construct Czechness is well explored in the book. . . . * Slavic Review *
This fascinating study draws on rarely consulted Czech sourcesnovels, private correspondence, and advice literatureto complicate our understanding of the Czech national movements first three decades. Contrary to the prevailing myth of gender harmony among Czech nationalists, Da Frankov reveals womens agency in negotiating their private sphere responsibilities and public sphere aspirations. Most significantly, Frankov highlights the importance of female friendships in strengthening womens resolve to become active participants in the burgeoning national movement. -- Cynthia Paces, The College of New Jersey

Author Bio

Da Frankov is an independent scholar who previously taught in the Department of Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.