Abstract
The aim of this paper is a critical interpretation of the career of sisters Josefa and Růžena Blažek (1878-1922), who became famous as the "conjoined twins" Blažek within the U.S. and European mass entertainment industry at the turn of the 19th/20th Century. Drawing from contemporary critical disability studies discourse, the analysis aims at the construction of the "other" body of Blažek sisters in different representations, such as newspaper accounts and photography.
Throughout the essay, the process of ascribing meanings to the bodies of Blazek sisters is observed, focusing on the ways in which the "different" body could be used as metaphor, entering the debates about the "collective body" of Czech nation. Using the intersectional approach, the essay interrogates the interplay between the imaginations of a "different" body and the notions of "white", non/normative feminity, maternity and sexuality of the time.
The paper demostrates the interconnectedness of certain notions of normative- class- specific femininity and family life with the notion of harmonious national community, showing the discoursive context of this connection within the nationalist biopolitical discourses. Finally, the double-figure of Blazek sisters is presented as a "narrative prosthesis" pleading for national unity in the troubling context of the early 20th century national politics.