Ioseb Gashvili Poster, dated 1940

Ideology, Propaganda and Gender

Images of Women on World War II Posters
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Soviet visual art provided women a variety of ideologically acceptable roles during World War II. A quick glance at the artistic trends from 1941 to 1945 (the period of the beginning and the end of the Eastern Front) is enough to see several features of a woman's image: a woman affected by the war; a warrior woman; a mother urging Soviet citizens (children) to go to war; a woman who is forced to master the "masculine profession" of her father / brother / husband who went to war, and a woman with national symbols. Images of all these types of women have appeared on posters, canvases, and movie screens. The aim of these images, of course, was to raise the fighting spirit and strengthen the invincibility of the Soviet state by using female visuals. It can be said that the image of a woman has become an important tool of propaganda.

The aim of this research paper is to study the images of women depicted on posters published in Georgia from 1941-1945. It is noteworthy that the classical, artistic analysis of visual art has an important role in this study. Such analysis involves discussing the composition of the image, including: the description of the poster, the relationship between the figures and the background depicted on the poster, as well as the representation of the meaning of the color and the font. 

Product details
Date of Publication
2020
Publisher
Heinrich Boell Foundation Tbilisi Office
Number of Pages
48
Licence
All rights reserved
Language of publication
English
Table of contents

Abstract 3

Introduction 5

Research Framework 6

Methodology 7

Literature Review 8

Research limitations 11

Soviet Ideology and "Women's Emancipation" 12

The Significance of the Poster for Soviet Ideology  13

Woman as a Victim 16

A Woman on the Batterfield  18

Mother's Face Iconography  21

Woman on the "Home Front"  23

The Image of a woman and National Symbolism  26

Victory over the Enemy: Changes to the image of a Woman  28

Conclusion 30

Literature 31

Appendix 32