Lecture (Auto)biographical discourse and Zofka Kveder
In the lecture for PhD students at the Faculty of Arts of the Charles University Prague (Department of South Slavonic and Balkan Studies),
Prof. Dr. Katja Mihurko Poniž presented the process of construction of the woman writer Zofka Kveder (1878-1926) into the icon of the feminism of the early 20th century in Croatian, Czech, Slovenian, Serbian and Austrian space. Kveder oeuvre consists of prose, dramatic works, literary and theatre reviews and feminist writings in Slovenian, Czech, Croatian, and German language. Due to her status as the feminist and cultural icon she has never been overviewed or forgotten author. However, the strategies of her “canonization” have never been reflected upon although Slovenian, Croatian, Czech and Serbian literary history intensively dealt with her work and personality in the last two decades.
Diverse representations und attempts of constructing Zofka Kveder as a cultural icon of the south-Slavic space open questions about strategies of glorifying author’s role in different literary systems and concealing the truth about certain character’s features, which were not in tone with the positive image of Kveder as a feminist role-model for younger generations. These strategies testify the positive aspirations and aporias of early feminist icon and role-model building. In the lecture the narrative and discursive strategies of writing the story about a woman writer, feminist and a new woman Zofka Kveder wer revealed.
Watch the recording of the webinar.
Zofka Kveder’s trajectory on Timeline.
