Representation of Prague and gender intimity in the novel Some correspondence by the Serbian woman writer Julka chlapec Djordjeivć
Abstract
The topic of the paper is the depiction of Prague, intimacy and gender in the novel Jedno dopisivanje: Fragmenti romana (Correspondence: Fragments of the Novel) (1932) by the Serbian philosopher, feminist and writer Julka Chlapec-Djordjević (1882-1969). Although she was originally from Vojvodina, she spent most of her active writing career in interwar democratic Prague (1922-1945), where, with her cosmopolitan and intellectual attitude, she became a mediator between "post-Austrian", Czech and Serbian culture.
The study focuses in particular on the construction of the female protagonist as a prototype of the so-called "new woman" with regard to innovative concepts of love, sexuality, desire, as well as the redefinition of family and motherhood. In this perspective, the analyzed novel is compared to the novels of Czech women writers and their contemporaries, specifically Doctor Hegel's Patient (1931) by Maria Pujmanová and Ten Lives (1937) by Helena Malířová.
In comparison with them, Julka Chlapec-Djordjevć constructed the gender identity of the protagonist as much more open and subversive towards the patriarchal conventions of the time. The main character Marija Prohaskova thus represents the revolutionary philosophical and sociological ideas that the author presented in her feminist work in the thirties of the twentieth in the 20th century.