Feminisation of (thought) style? Gendered epistemologies of literary criticism in interwar Poland

The intellectual and cultural life of interwar Europe was marked by pronounced anxieties about women’s unapologetic intervention into previously male-dominated domains. This article explores the epistemic dimension of that anxiety by using an example from an “intellectual periphery”: Eastern European literary criticism. It reframes a debate about metaphorical style that took place in Poland’s influential weekly Wiadomości Literackie in 1928 as a case study of gendered epistemology within an inherently unequal “thought collective.” Focussing on the contributions by three female authors – Irena Krzywicka, Maria Kuncewiczowa, and Stanisława Przybyszewska – the article examines their distinct positions on fiction’s ability to mediate knowledge and their strategies of establishing or renegotiating the relationship between aesthetics and gender. Ultimately, the debate signified a “feminisation of thought style” in Polish literary circles, as women’s intellectual presence became central to literary discourse, challenging masculine common sense and making claims on knowledge production.