Trauma, Violence, and Lesbian Agency in Croatia and Serbia Building Better Times

This book uncovers some of the major moments in the fragile and stillpoorly known herstory of feminist lesbian engagement in Serbia andCroatia. By treating the trauma of war, homophobia, and neoliberalcapitalism as a verbally impenetrable experience that longs to benarrated, this monograph explores the ways in which feminist lesbianlanguage has repeatedly emerged in the context of strong patriarchal silencing that has surrounded the armed conflicts of the Yugoslavsuccession. With an abundance of empirical material, Bilić illuminates arange of courageous but sometimes contested and controversial activistresponses to the challenges posed by the violent intersection ofmisogyny, lesbophobia, poverty, and nationalism. The book rendersvisible a surprising diversity of activist initiatives and the resilience oftransnational affective ties, which testify to the creativity of lesbianactivist mobilisations in the ambivalent semi-peripheral space that usedto be Yugoslavia.
Trauma, Violence, and Lesbian Agency in Croatia and Serbiawill be ofinterest to scholars and students researching the history and politics ofEastern Europe, as well as to those working in the fields of politicalsociology, lesbian and gay studies, gender studies, and queer theoryand activism.