«The Mockery of Citizenship». Great War and authoritarian involution of states in the writings and public speeches of Emma Goldman
Keywords:
Emma Goldman, Great War, Citizenship, Married Women, Enemy AliensAbstract
The purpose of the essay is to highlight Emma Goldman's reflection on the changes brought about by the Great War to the very idea of nation and citizenship. From then, citizenship was no longer defined by membership to a social and political organization, but rather to a blood community, and in any case subject to the arbitrariness of governments. As Emma Goldman wrote in 1933, citizenship had become a “sheer mockery”. The first part of the article briefly outlines Emma Goldman’s anarchist vision and questions the judgment that until recently has prevailed in biographies and essays describing her as an activist, a synthesizer, not as an original thinker. Then the essay addresses her contribution to feminist theory and the influence the authors of radical American tradition of resistance to authority had on her idea of anarchy. The central part is dedicated to the Lithuanian anarchist’s reflection on citizenship starting from 1909, when her naturalization was revoked, to 1919 when, after two years in prison, she was deported to Russia, and finally to the early years of exile. Painfully affected by denaturalization and expulsion, Emma Goldman understood not only that her life would be changed forever, but so would social coexistence, ways of thinking, and political structures. The analysis of Goldman’s writings and speeches on war legislation and ideological mobilization against the enemy aliens and minorities is intertwined with the reconstruction of the context of intolerance and psychosis brought about by the conflict. Emma Goldman was among the first to grasp the seriousness of the persecution of enemy nationals, the anomalous status of women in relation to citizenship and African Americans, and to denounce abuse and violence. Indeed, the process of redefining the nation enacted during the war years led to the marginalization or violent exclusion of large sections of society along class, gender and race lines.
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