Double-Censored Freedom? Cultural Memory's Censorship of Intimacy Writing in Moj zivot by Maga Magazinovic

Maga Magazinovic (1882-1968) was a Serbian dancer artist and teacher. In this article, I analyse her little-known ego-document Moj zivot (2000), considering it as an example of first-person narrative due to her strategies of presenting intimacy in literature through genres such as diary and confession. I use cultural memory to research Magazinovic's contribution to the cultural life of Serbia (memory object), what she transferred to her intimate description (memory medium), and then has been deliberately excluded by censorship from collective memory as inconsistent with the canon of Serbian cultural memory. Magazinovic's intimacy writing broke all cultural taboos by describing close relationships and emphasizing the romantic ones, through her free thinking, blatantly advocating for feminism, and exposing the female private realm so far isolated against both the prudish nature of patriarchy and the new socialist reality. Therefore, I show the emancipatory perspective of a woman's body that frees itself from censorship limitations and its unconventional expression of intimate emotions through modern dance and writing. Moreover, I underline that this perspective in cultural memory was regulated by two censorship systems: that of moral/erotic nature in Kingdom of Yugoslavia and ideological/political one in socialist Yugoslavia.

Automated summary

This article analyzes Maga Magazinovic's little-known ego-document Moj zivot (2000) as a first-person narrative that presents intimacy in literature through genres such as diary and confession. The author uses cultural memory to explore Magazinovic's contribution to Serbia's cultural life, her intimate portrayal, and its deliberate exclusion from collective memory due to censorship. Magazinovic's intimate writing defied cultural taboos by describing close relationships, advocating for feminism, and exposing the female private realm against patriarchal and socialist constraints. The article highlights the emancipatory perspective of a woman's body through modern dance and writing, which was regulated by moral/erotic censorship in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and ideological/political censorship in socialist Yugoslavia.