Kobiecość a płeć żeńska. Komediopisarki dwudziestolecia międzywojennego wobec dyskursu emancypacyjnego

The article presents an analysis of selected interwar comedies written by women – Marcelina Grabowska, Maria Morozowicz-Szczepkowska, Maria Pawlikowska- -Jasnorzewska and Magdalena Samozwaniec – and dealing with issues related to the emancipation discourse: motherhood, abortion, shaping a new female role model, and relationships in women’s groups. The heroines of those plays, increasingly liberated and self-aware, demanded the rights traditionally assigned to men, while trying to free themselves from widespread stereotypes. The authors of the dramatic works used various comedic techniques and traditions: satirical, ludic, or Young Poland’s “black comedy.” Comedy influenced the construction of the depicted world and its individual elements as well as the linguistic forms. The amusing heroines became negative characters, going beyond the limits of femininity accepted by the society or postulated by the authors, and their awkwardness evoked compassion in the audience or revealed the malfunctioning of social institutions.