The barbarians, the classics and… the feminists : how gender has problematized the debate about the literary tradition

This article reviews two major debates in post-1989 Polish literary criticism, one about the bruLion generation and the other one about women’s literature. The rhetoric of intergenerational conflict between metaphorical fathers ('classics') and sons ('barbarians') that was extended in the early and mid-nineties by writers and critics to the new, self-conscious women's (daughters') writing made that rebellion against tradition appear problematic and futile. The polemic fervour with which the literary establishment sought to discredit the new writing is best illustrated by their use of the denigrating term 'menstrual literature'. Following Izabela Filipiak's essay 'Monstrous Literature', as well as other significant landmarks of women's writing, the article analyzes the complex relations between gender, the literary canon, tradition and rebellion.