Abstract

This article examines two contemporary Polish films, Sztuka kochania (The Art of Loving, 2017), directed by Maria Sadowska and Bo we mnie jest seks (Autumn Girl, 2021), directed by Katarzyna Klimkiewicz. Each depicts a famous Polish woman, namely Michalina Wisłocka and Kalina Jędrusik, each of whom made a mark on the period of state socialism (the time of the Polish People’s Republic), projecting an image of a modern, liberated woman. It tries to establish how their portrayal reflects, on one hand, the social changes that took place in Poland after the end of Stalinism, especially in the 1960s, and, on the other hand, the current discourse of women and femininity in Poland, on the other. It also examines how emancipation was entangled with social class, arguing that the relative freedom these feminist icons enjoyed reflected their relatively high social class. My investigation is informed by the concept of ‘modernisation’ and a ‘modern woman,’ as understood in the West and in Poland in the 1960s and 1970s.