The Play A Maiden’s Love by Maria Kuncewiczowa as an Example of a Representation of the Subject of Abortion in Polish Interwar Theatre

• Published in: Human affairs (Bratislava, Slovakia) Vol. 35; no. 2; pp. 297 - 311
• Main Author: Obarska, Marcelina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Warsaw De Gruyter 28.04.2025; Walter de Gruyter GmbH
• Subjects: Abortion; Discourse; Human rights; interwar theater; Love; polish dramaturgy; Politics; Pregnancy; Reproductive rights; Theater
• ISSN: 1210-3055; 1337-401X
• DOI: 10.1515/humaff-2024-0056

Reproductive rights in Poland have been subject to fight for more than a hundred years. Since Polish independence in 1918, the topic of abortion has been present in literary forms of female artistic expression. One such play is written by Maria Kuncewiczowa in 1932. The protagonist, a young woman named Inka, faces a weighty choice of whether to maintain the pregnancy having been left alone with this decision by her partner. In 1932 the piece was staged in Teatr Maly in Warsaw and widely discussed in the newspapers and magazines. It was also a year when a new penal code was established and abortion was criminalized. The conveys that theater can be considered as a form of social relation and that it is inherently interwoven with socio-political and economic discourse. In this paper, I would like to analyse Kuncewiczowa’s strategies for representing the subject of abortion as well as the reception and the critical discourse around of the play from Teatr Maly. I would also like to demonstrate the political potentialites in melodrama.