Defiance of Motherhood as an Inherited Tradition and Motherhood as Redemption in the Works by Božena Víková-Kunětická and Jelena Dimitrijević

Abstract

This paper deals with the dual aspect of motherhood in both the novel by the Czech writer Božena Víková-Kunětická (1862–1934) Vzpoura (1901) and the novel by the Serbian writer Jelena Dimitrijević (1862–1945) Nove (1912). Although they follow a similar poetic direction, these women writers nevertheless have different approaches to depicting the same themes. While Jelena Dimitrijević portrays the situations in both the Turkish and American settings with a sharp eye, focusing mainly on interpersonal relationships and women’s behaviour and integration into society, Božena Víková-Kunětická is more concerned with the concrete problems her heroines go through (e.g. infidelity in marriage, pregnancy out of wedlock, deviation from traditions and socio-cultural conventions). Although the novels Vzpoura and Nove are very different in their artistic and content structure, their common element is the motif of girls growing up at the beginning of the 20th century and their resistance to the expectation of continuing traditional relationships within the family. In both novels, motherhood is experienced as a set of fixed and permitted acts and practises of expected behaviour that must not be violated, but motherhood can also be understood in a broader sense as it relates to the function and role of women in a patriarchal family and a conservative society. In this context, we have tried to identify comparatively similar and different elements that these authors use to describe certain problems (e.g. women’s relationship to tradition, their rebellion, their defiance and the question of their free choice).V prispevku predstavljam dvojni vidik materinstva v romanu Vzpoura (1901) češke avtorice Božene Víkove-Kuněticke (1862–1934) in romanu Nove (1912) srbske avtorice Jelene Dimitrijević (1862–1945). Čeprav sledita podobni pesniški usmeritvi, imata različne pristope pri upodabljanju istih tem. Medtem ko Jelena Dimitrijević situacije v turškem in ameriškem okolju prikazuje z ostrim očesom, osredotočeno predvsem na medosebne odnose in vedenje žensk ter njihovo vključevanje v družbo, je Božena Víková-Kunětická bolj zaskrbljena zaradi konkretnih težav, skozi katere prehajajo njene junakinje (npr. nezvestoba v zakonu, nosečnost izven zakona, odstopanje od tradicij in družbeno-kulturnih konvencij). Čeprav sta romana Vzpoura in Nove zelo različna v svoji umetniški in vsebinski strukturi, je njun skupni element motiv deklet, ki odrastejo na začetku 20. stoletja in se upirajo pričakovanju nadaljevanja tradicionalnih odnosov v družini. V obeh romanih je materinstvo doživljeno kot niz določenih in dovoljenih dejanj ter praks pričakovanega vedenja, ki jih ni dovoljeno kršiti, vendar se materinstvo lahko razume tudi v širšem smislu, saj se nanaša na funkcijo in vlogo žensk v patriarhalni družini in konzervativni družbi. V tem kontekstu sem poskušala identificirati primerjalno podobne in različne elemente, ki jih avtorici uporabljata za opis določenih težav (npr. odnos žensk do tradicije, njihova uporniška drža, njihovo izzivanje in vprašanje svobodne izbire). Obe avtorici prikazujeta junakinje, ki se upirajo materinstvu kot naloženi tradicionalni vlogi žensk v patriarhalni družbi, vendar prav tako enako prepoznata elemente odrešenja glavnih junakinj prav skozi rojstvo otrok v povezavi s predhodnim zavračanjem tradicije. Čeprav si ti dve stališči nasprotujeta, kažeta globlje arhetipske vidike funkcije ženskosti in samoizpolnitve junakinj