A feminist becoming? Louise Thompson Patterson’s and Dorothy West’s sojourn in the Soviet Union

Katharina Wiedlack

doi:10.14198/fem.2020.36.05

Autores/as

Katharina Wiedlack University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9236-8819

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14198/fem.2020.36.05

Palabras clave:

Afronorteamericano, Rusia, URSS, comunismo, feminismo, liberación de las mujeres, sexualidad, literatura, Renacimiento de Harlem

Resumen

Este artículo sigue a la activista socialista Louise Thompson (después Patterson) y a la escritora Dorothy West en su viaje a la Unión Soviética para filmar una película sobre el racismo contra la gente de color en Norteamérica en 1932. La película sobre la opresión racial nunca se hizo, pero las mujeres viajaron unos meses por la URSS y las Repúblicas Soviéticas, juntándose con famosos y experimentando la modernización. Evaluando las descripciones del viaje, correspondencias y memorias de Thompson y West desde un punto de vista interseccional, el artículo analiza sus experiencias –claramente marcadas por su género– y encuentros con el movimiento de liberación de mujeres socialistas. Argumenta que sus obras durante el viaje y después del regreso revelan cómo sus experiencias en la URSS crearon una conciencia feminista en ambas que cambió radicalmente su visión sobre la agrupación de mujeres de color y alteró la trayectoria de sus vidas.

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