Shaping “New Man”, Reconstructing “New Woman”: A Return to Albanian Totalitarian Socialist Past

The totalitarian socialist regime, which was installed in Albania in 1945, lasting until 1990, was expressed and articulated as a consistent effort led to modernism or civilization, as a kind of “social engineering” incarnated to the inner individual and society dimensions. Fighting old and traditional mentality, the totalitarian socialist countries created the infrastructure for spreading the model of the “new man” according to new principles, aiming to make everyday life productive and disciplined. Under the implementation of the “new man” approach, especially the image of woman was reconstructed. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the ideal of the “new man” and “new woman” were socially constructed and how they have influenced the everyday life of people, under the totalitarian socialist regime, referring to the case of the Albania. 18 in depth semi structured interviews with woman and men from 55 until 85 years old have been conducted and the poetry and text songs of that time have been explored. The research showed that through the trinomen “education-work-tempering”, the “new man” and “new woman” was socially constructed. People’s social status, during the socialist regime in Albania influences their perceptions and their attachment to the “new man” and “new woman” portraits Received: 4 September 2021 / Accepted: 15 November 2021 / Published: 3 January 2022

THE PORTRAIT OF A MODERN WOMAN IN THE POETRY OF WANDA MELCER

The article tackles the topie of womanhood as a typical motif in Wanda Melcer' s poetry, a topie which in historical-literary studies has so far been insufficiently discussed. Through the analysis of selected poems from her two published volumes as well as from other scattered poems, the portrait of a modern woman as presented in that poetry has been sketched out. This woman is a person who takes part in civilisational, social and manner-related changes. Her relations to culture, art and literature, her vitality and being active in life, all attest to her abandonment of roles imposed by the patriarchal system. It has been shown that the "new woman" breaks taboos and is educated. Above all she is independent and selfreliant, desires success and thirsts for new experiences, as demonstrated by how she frequently changes her surroundings and appropriates new spaces. She moulds her identity in confrontation with the outside world, she is open to otherness and changeability. At the same time she maintains personal consistency. Her creative identity is related to acting upon the principle of choice, and not obligation. Due to the multitude of biographical references present, the portrait of the female heroine contained in Wanda Melcer's poetry can be seen as a self-portrait of the author herself.

From a "Child of Light" to a "Woman of Genius": Sarah Grand's The Beth Book as the New Woman Bildungsroman

The New Woman fiction, popular in the last decade of the 19th century, contested the traditional notions of gender roles and participated in the public debates on women’s rights. The protagonists of the New Woman novels refused to conform to the submissive and self-abnegating Victorian ideal of femininity. The article discusses the ways in which Sarah Grand, a prominent New Woman novelist and social activist, uses and transforms both the elements of her own life and the Bildungsroman conventions in her 1897 novel The Beth Book to create a heroine whose growth and development result in her personal independence and her active public engagement in women’s issues. Cast in a variety of social roles, Beth Maclure reclaims her agency and becomes an embodiment of the New Woman.

Maria Hirszbein: An (In)visible Figure of Polish Cinema of the 1920s and 1930s

This article examines the career of the Polish film producer Maria Hirszbein (1889–1939/1942) in relation to the development of interwar Polish cinema, including Yiddish films, and the modern idea of a “New Woman.” Investigating Hirszbein's activities as the successful manager of her company, Leo-Film, and as cofounder and member of the Polish film producers’ unions, the article explores her professional accomplishments and innovative work style, which was based on teamwork and promoting young, talented actors, creative directors, and screenwriters sensitive to social issues. In reconstructing Hirszbein's professional biography, the text combines different sources such as press reports, film reviews, photographs from the collection of the Polish National Film Archive (FINA), and data collected by the Institute of Jewish History in Warsaw.

Can Female Speak? Anna Laetitia Barbauld, a Legacy for Women Poets

In Romanticism the poet was considered as a prophet, an unknown illustrative speaking for the whole of humanity; however, woman poets were marginalized. The existent study accompaniments implication as the consequences can shade sunnier on why women poets as vigorous and operative supporters of Romanticism period futile to overcome their defensible place among the main poets of the time in spitefulness of their positive community planetary. Females wanted to be documented and acknowledged as human beings in general and poets indefinite. By providing a thorough investigation of Anna Laetitia Barbauld, this study has explored how she possesses her faultless feminine image while she trails a profession outside of the domestic domain. Anna Laetitia Barbauld transfers the absorbing visionary image of a new woman and competes with the male-oriented concept that women could not and should not engage in poetry writing.