Women, Gender, and the Reproduction of the Nation in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Bohemia

Around the mid nineteenth century, activists of the Czech national movement were not concerned solely with establishing the social and cultural rules and requirements that would define the modern Czech nation. Texts in Czech national patriotic publications make clear that rules concerning the proper reproduction of the nation were among the key issues. This presentation will consider several articles that appeared in renowned national patriotic journals. These articles resonated with other texts in both Czech and outside contexts that provided instructions on how to improve one's health and physique, trying to promote a certain kind of lifestyle. But at the same time, they exceeded the realm of such advice by suggesting that concerns over physical, physiological, and moral characteristics had existed in envisioning and creating (national) communities in the years prior to the emergence of (social) Darwinism and modern eugenics movements. This presentation will examine these propositions in the context of the mid-nineteenth-century Czech national movement that emphasized individual's responsibility for the benefit and future existence of the nation. I will also examine the gendered dimension of the propositions and argue that women were identified as being particularly responsible for both the biological and symbolic reproduction of the nation. Finally, I will argue that the ways in which national movements proposed gender-specific rules and requirements of physical, physiological, and moral fitness for the members of their nation remain a relevant issue today and suggest that population management and ideas on correct re/production were innately present in the nation's definition and program.