Elizabeth Bentley and cold war representation: Some masks not dropped
During the 1930s and 1940s Soviet intelligence operated spy rings within the United States. America Communist Elizabeth Bentley managed these networks until she defected to the FBI in 1945. Bentley's story of Communists in government ‐ the first of the Cold War — caused a public scandal. Some commentators, offended by Bentley's failure to fulfil traditional gender prescriptions, ridiculed her and shed doubts upon her story, which received less serious consideration than Whittaker Chambers’ similar tale. This article explores these criticisms, Bentley's attempts to counter them with her own public performances of traditional feminity, and, implicitly, gender's role in American Cold War politics.
Gendered Narratives in Anti-Stalinism and Anti-Communism during the Cold War: The Case of Juliet Poyntz
In June 1937, Juliet Poyntz left her boarding room at the American Woman's Association Clubhouse in Manhattan and was never seen again. Poyntz's story might have gone unnoticed if not for the fact that she was a U.S. citizen working for Soviet foreign intelligence. Her task was to recruit others with connections to Germany who would be willing to gather intelligence on the Nazi apparatus. After she disappeared, rumors circulated that she was abducted by the Soviet secret police and murdered or spirited back to the USSR and imprisoned. Anti-Stalinist radicals claimed that Poyntz was disillusioned with the Soviet Union and was murdered in retaliation. After World War II, Poyntz's disappearance fueled the fears of Communists such as Whittaker Chambers who became key witnesses at hearings held by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Poyntz's disappearance symbolized the danger of Iosif Stalin's leadership in the 1930s, and after the war this evolved into fears of Communism itself as the main threat. What emerged from both anti-Stalinist radicals in the 1930s and postwar anti-Communists were highly gendered narratives that reveal the evolution of anti-Communist fears—fears that were reflected in Poyntz's fate.
Constructing gender and locality in late medieval England : the lives of Anglo-Saxon and British female saints in the South English Legendaries
..........................................................................................2 Acknowledgements.............................................................................5 Introduction....................................................................................8 1. Female Saints in the SELS 2. The SEL Manuscripts of Monastic Women’s Lives 3. Narratives of Medieval Monastic Women Chapter 1 Saint Frideswide of Oxford and Topoi of Virginity........................42