Appel de conférences pour le colloque international « Politics, Feminisms, Music. European and Global Manifestations and Contexts from 1945 to the Present Day », Section for Music History / Section for Contemporary History of the German Historical Institute / Goethe Institute, Rome, 5-7 novembre 2025.
«Different political systems or political milieus give rise to different forms of feminism. These divergent facets of feminism form regional splinters and offshoots, but also supra-regional alliances. The conference aims to map artistic positions against the background of feminisms characterised at the national level, their international impact, and transnational networks.
The political panorama of the post-war period was characterised by negotiation processes between communist and anti-communist positions; an expansive phenomenon that took place in unexpected arenas, not only along the predictable zones formed by East/West national borders. For example, on the one hand, youth and labour protests and the strength of the Communist Party shaped the Italian political landscape in the 1960s and 1970s, whose agenda included gender equality. These were opposed by conservative forces, which were not least due to the strong influence of the Catholic Church and the presence of the Vatican in Italy. Internal conflicts within the organised left also arose from the fact that feminist agendas were largely determined by male actors. This led to the fragmentation of larger feminist groups, which split off and became depoliticised. The French women’s movement was organised and institutionalised early on with groups such as ‘Ecologie feministe’, ‘Choisir’ and the ‘Mouvement pour la liberté de l’avortement et de la contraception’. With spectacular actions, they became a role model for other national feminist movements. In the real socialist GDR, whose Marxist guiding ideology included gender equality, feminism was organised in the ‘Demokratischer Frauenbund Deutschland’ (German Democratic Women’s Association), which primarily acted in accordance with the state, making feminism a public matter. In contrast, women’s groups in West Germany, with their special historical and geostrategic position in the Cold War, were primarily anti-communist, which, according to Irene Stoehr, resulted in the ‘privatisation of gender relations’ in West Germany. Based on the gender relations that prevailed in these respective systems over time, feminist concerns responded by using different forms. The emphasis on dissimilarity or equality between the sexes, the demand for women’s rights or the postulate to valorise marginalised femininity made up the different shades and forms that feminisms took on in various national contexts against different political backgrounds. Transnationally, Black feminism in particular, which originated in Africa and the USA, advocated self-empowerment as a means of combating intersectional discrimination.
From the various feminist positions, the function of art – shaped by political backgrounds – has different meanings. Feminist groups use it as a means of protest. In a Marxist interpretation, art becomes a component of political education, and is therefore also linked to feminist concerns. Feminist art can be used to make a statement about political representation. Conversely, feminist positions in the capitalist cultural industry are also used as a promotional measure or turned into anti-feminist arguments when emancipation or conformity with traditional female gender roles are elevated to (male) criteria for evaluating art.
The conference will therefore also focus on art and, in particular, music productions by feminist groups and their different forms of feminism. Furthermore, feminist art by political groups, such as the anti-fascist or peace movements, will be discussed. Of interest in this context are, for example, feminist protest song groups such as Il Canzoniere Femminista or Die Bonner Blaustrümpfe, ‘cantautrici’ or songwriters who performed at events such as demonstrations or political congresses. Another area of the conference will be dedicated to the topic of feminism as part of aesthetic programmes, especially ‘engaged art’, as is the case, for example, with Luigi Nono’s Al gran sole carico d’amore, which focuses on the fate of women. Feminism as a component of queer art (works) or engaged through artistic collaborations such as that of Sylvano Bussotti and Cathy Berberian or Dacia Maraini is another desirable subject area. Case studies of artists who had biographical and ideological connections to politics and/or feminism will also be addressed, such as the electronic music composer Teresa Rampazzi, who was more of a communist than a feminist, but was inevitably linked to this ideology due to the integration of feminist agendas into the communist party programme.
The aim of the conference is to platform historical and musicological research pursuing the various impulses of feminist histories and to address the following topics, among others, in keynote speeches and plenary discussions:
- Feminism in national political contexts
- Transnational feminism (also intersectional)
- Feminist (intersectional) art and music (of all genres)
- Composers/performers and feminism
- Music in feminist groups
- ‘Engaged’ music of all genres and feminism
- Queerness and feminism
- Gender attributions and artistic genre: technology and feminism?
- Feminism/emancipation and discourse ».
Date limite de soumission : 15 août 2025.