Abstract
Through a multimodal reading of the spatio-temporal construction of social reproduction in two stories from 1960 by Ela Peroci, illustrated by Ančka Gošnik Godec, and drawing on critical feminist historiography, this article shifts reflection on socialist motherhood away from descriptions of motherhood as an institution and alienated work that predetermines and closes maternal subjectivity. Instead, it examines the constitution of experience and the formation of subjectivities, presenting the work of fiction – that is, the labour of producing fiction – as a wedge for the political: a third space for negotiating care, agency, and futurity.
References
Alečković, Mira (1955): Deset godina jugoslovenske literature za decu. Letopis Matice srpske, 131, 376, 4, 364–386.
Bhabha, Homi (2009): In the Cave of Making: Thoughts on Third Space. In: Ikas, Karin & Gerhard Wagner (eds.): Communicating in the Third Space. New York – Oxon, Routledge, ix–xiv.
Erdei, Ildiko (2004): ‘The Happy Child’ as an Icon of Socialist Transformation: Yugoslavia’s Pioneer Organization. In: Lampe R., John & Mark Mazover (eds.): Ideologies and National Identities: The Case of Twentieth-Century Southeastern Europe. Budapest, CEU Press, 154–178.
Filipović, Mileva (2024 [1979]): The Working Class and Woman’s Emancipation in Socialism [Radnička klasa i emancipacija žene u socijalizmu]. In: Lorand, Zsofia, Hincu, Adela, Stanczak-Wislicz, Katarzyna & Jovana Mihajlović Trbovc (eds.): Texts and Contexts from the History of Feminism and Women’s Rights: East Central Europe, Second Half of the Twentieth Century. Budapest – New York, CEU Press, 471–475.
International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) (1956–1980): Hans Christian Andersen Awards IBBY Honour List 1956–1980. https://www.ibby.org/subnavigation/archives/flipbook?tx_archive_archivelist%5Baction%5D=show&tx_archive_archivelist%5Bcontroller%5D=Publication&tx_archive_archivelist%5Bpublication%5D=299&cHash=23afea66cc0ac5b4df21e93e41f7ddd6 (last access: 2026-02-11).
Iser, Wolfgang (1993): The Fictive and the Imaginary: Charting Literary Anthropology. Baltimore – London, Johns Hopkins University Press.
Jeraj, Mateja (2005): Slovenke na prehodu v socializem (Vloga in položaj ženske v Sloveniji 1945–1953). Ljubljana, Arhiv Republike Slovenije.
Jerbić, Velibor (ed.) (1973): Analiza funkcija slobodnog vremena djece i omladine. Zagreb, Centar za vanškolski odgoj – Savez društava “Naša djeca” SR Hrvatske.
Kermavnar, Simona (2018): Katere pasme so znameniti psi, ki krasijo dostop do Tivolskega gradu?. https://www.rtvslo.si/kultura/drugo/katere-pasme-so-znameniti-psi-ki-krasijo-dostopdo-tivolskega-gradu/461166 (last access: 2026-08-28).
Kobolt, Katja (2023): Artistic Work for Children between Productive and Social Reproductive Work. Libri et Liberi, 12, 2, 253–274. https://doi.org/10.21066/carcl.libri.12.2.2 (last access: 2026-10-06).
Kodrnja, Jasenka (1985): Umjetnik u društvenom kontekstu. Zagreb, Zavod za kulturu Hrvatske.
Lefebvre, Henri (1975): Elements for a Sociology of Self-management. In: Horvat, Branko, Supek, Rudi & Mihailo Marković (eds.): Self-Governing Socialism: A Reader (Volume Two: Sociology and Politics Economics). New York, International Arts and Sciences Press, inc. White Plains, 14–19.
Lefebvre, Henri (1991 [1974]): The Production of Space. Oxford – Cambridge, Basil Blackwell.
Ler-Sofronić, Nada (2024 [1986]): Neofeminism and the Socialist Alternative [Marksizam I neofeminizam]. In: Lorand, Zsofia, Hincu, Adela, Stanczak-Wislicz, Katarzyna & Jovana Mihajlović Trbovc (eds.): Texts and Contexts from the History of Feminism and Women’s Movements in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. Budapest – New York, CEU Press, 261–266.
Lorand, Zsofia, Hincu, Adela, Stanczak-Wislicz, Katarzyna & Jovana Mihajlović Trbovc (eds.) (2024): Texts and Contexts from the History of Feminism and Women’s Rights: East Central Europe, Second Half of the Twentieth Century. Budapest – New York, CEU Press.
Lunder, Lucija (2025): Usklajevanje materinstva in profesionalnega dela likovnic v Socialistični republiki Sloveniji: Študija porodniškega dopusta (MA thesis). https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?id=217382&lang=slv (last access: 2026-02-11).
Mihovilović, Miro (ed.) (1975): Žena između rada i porodice: utjecaj zaposlenosti žena na strukturu i funkciju porodice. Zagreb, Institut za društvena istraživanja Sveučilišta.
Mohanty, Chandra Talpade (1988): Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses. Feminist Review, 30, 1, 61–88.
Peroci, Ela (1960): Ptičke so odletele. Ljubljana, Mladinska knjiga.
Peroci, Ela (1964): Za lahko noč. Ljubljana, Mladinska knjiga.
Petrović Todosijević, Sanja (2019): Slika oca u jugoslovenskim časopisima za decu od kraja Drugog svetskog rata do šezdesetih godina 20. veka. In: Tropin, Tijana & Stanislava Barać (eds.): Časopisi za decu: jugoslovensko nasleđe (1918–1991). Belgrade, Institut za književnost i umetnost, 263–285.
Praznik, Katja (2021): Art Work: Invisible Labour and the Legacy of Yugoslav Socialism. Toronto, University of Toronto Press.
Predin, Andrej (2012): Hči Jelka izsilila Muco Copatarico. Devetdeset let pravljičarke, ki je odrasla brez pravljic. https://slovenskenovice.delo.si/bulvar/domaci-traci/hci-jelka-izsilila-muco-copatarico#google_vignette (last access: 2026-02-11).
Rich, Adrienne (1986 [1976]): Of Woman Born. Motherhood as Experience and Institution. London, Virago.
Rosen, Rachel (2023): Childhood in and Through Social Reproduction Theory. In: Balagopalan, Sarada, Wall, John & Karen Wells (eds.): Bloomsbury Handbook of Theories in Childhood. London, Bloomsbury Academic, 280–294.
Scott, Joan Wallach (1991): The Evidence of Experience. Critical Inquiry, 17, 4, 773–797.
Tomšič, Vida (1978): Ženska, delo, družina, družba. Ljubljana, Komunist.
Ule, Mirjana (2012): Reconstruction of Youth in Post-socialism: Expectations and Dilemmas. In: Leccardi, Carmen, Feixa, Carles, Kovacheva, Siyka, Reiter, Heinz & Tatjana Sekulić (eds.): 1989: Young People and Social Change after the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Strasbourg Cedex, Council of Europe Publishing, 29–43.
United Nations (2024): Population Division. https://population.un.org/wpp/graphs?loc=900&type=Demographic%20Profiles&category=Line%20Charts (last access: 2026-02-09).
Vidmar Horvat, Ksenija (2021 [2013]): Zamišljena Mati: Spol in Nacionalizem v Kulturi 20. stoletja. Ljubljana, Ljubljana University Press, Faculty of Arts.
Vidmar Horvat, Ksenija (2023): Socialist “Uses of Enchantment”: Fairy Tales, Sexuality, and Slovene National Identity in a Comparative Perspective. Annales, Series Historia et Sociologia, 34, 4, 641–652.
Zaharijević, Adriana (2017): The Strange Case of Yugoslav Feminism: Feminism and Socialism in ‘The East’. Montenegrin Journal for Social Sciences, 1, 2, 135–156.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2026 Katja Kobolt

