'Examining both well-known and heretofore neglected artists, this book provides a nuanced discussion of gender, feminism and identity politics in the region. It also serves to widen the discussion about feminist performance practices and strategies beyond the canonical west.'
Amy Bryzgel, Professor of Film and Visual Culture, University of Aberdeen
'I am Jugoslovenka! is an essential, nuanced feminist intervention into Yugoslav studies. In discussing Yugoslav feminist performance politics, the book places artists and performers as divergent as Marina Abramovic, Lepa Brena and Esma Redzepova side by side. Tumbas effectively dismantles elitist hierarchies about high and low cultural production and feminist praxis during and after Yugoslavia.'
Dijana Jelaca, Brooklyn College
'Jasmina Tumbas's book surveys the cultural landscape of late socialist Yugoslavia to reveal the figure of Jugoslovenka as an innovative theoretical construct that captures the simultaneity of emancipatory opportunities and entrenched patriarchy. Imaginative and original, it provides a much-needed extension of the ongoing feminist reassessment of state socialism to the field of art history.'
Vladimir Kulic, Associate Professor of Architectural History, Iowa State University
'Tumbas's sensitive awareness of historical context is made in the deft interweaving of visual cultural analysis with the author's story as a refugee from Vojvodina in Germany in the early 1990s...'
Art Monthly
Introduction: Jugoslovenka: the unique position of Yugoslav women during and after socialism
1 Jugoslovenka's body under patriarchal socialism: art and feminist performance politics in Yugoslavia
2 Marina Abramovic, Lepa Brena and Esma Redzepova: socialist nation, Orientalism, and Yugoslav legacy
3 Queer Jugoslovenka
4 Jugoslovenka in a sea of avant-garde machismo: a feminist reading of NSK
5 The last generation of Jugoslovenkas: diverse forms of emancipatory resistance and performance strategies
Conclusion: Jugoslovenka: a wide-ranging model for feminist performance politics in art and culture
Index