Marija Jurić Zagorka - Between her Own Life and the Struggle for Women's Rights in Croatia

U radu autorica problematizira djelovanje Marije Jurić Zagorke i njezino nastojanje da se položaj žena unutar hrvatskog društva promjeni i poboljša. Razmatrajući njezine autobiografske, književne i novinske tekstove nastoje se prikazati načini na koje se Zagorka kontinuirano kritički odnosila prema podčinjenom položaju žene i pružala mu otpor svojim životnim primjerom i javnim djelovanjem. Kompleksnost ovog pitanja dodatno je potaknuta promišljanjem o načinima na koje je diskurs o ženskom obrazovanju, radu i umjetnosti ograničavao pozicioniranje žena u društvu. Komparativno-analitičkim pregledom i interdisciplinarnim usporedbama omogućuje se poseban uvid u nastojanje proizvodnje objektivne ženske moći unutar romana suvremene tematike i tekstova u časopisima Ženski list i Hrvatica s ciljem utvrđivanja Zagorkina doprinosa legitimizaciji ženske slobode. Zagorkina pojava i djelovanje istupali su iz tradicionalnih patrijarhalnih okvira njezina vremena, a njezin novinarski rad sam je po sebi vid otpora zatečenom stanju. Aktivno je sudjelovala u društvu te inzistirala na postojanju političke dimenzije proizvodnje i rada žene pritom uklapajući feminističke ideje u okvire nacionalne ideje i žanra romanse. Vrijeme u kojem je djelovala obilježava kolebanje između modernog i tradicionalnog pa se takva kolebanja mogu uočiti i u njezinu autorskom radu što njezine moderne stavove čini sklonima pregovoru s tradicijom. Pisanjem edukativnih tekstova o ženskom doprinosu hrvatskoj povijest Zagorka daje svoj udio nastojanjima upisivanja žena u pretežito mušku povijest i tako pridonosi legitimizaciji ženskog djelovanja i kretanja u javnom prostoru. Koristeći nametnutu joj autsajdersku poziciju Zagorka istovremeno oponira društvenim strukturama i nastoji biti dio njih. Pritom ju karakterizira specifičan način pisanja i vlastite granice žanra koje oblikuje u skladu s odgovarajućim svrhama.In this paper the author discusses the work of Marija Jurić Zagorka and her efforts to change and improve the position of women in Croatian society. Considering her autobiographical, literary and journalistic work, the paper is attempting to show the ways in which Zagorka continued to critically approach women’s inferior position and oppose it by her own life example and her public work. The complexity of this question is further stimulated by consideration of ways in which women’s position in society was limited by discourse of female education, work and art. The objective is to determine Zagorka’s contribution to legitimization of female freedom by comparative-analytic overview and interdisciplinary comparison which will provide special insight in attempts to create objective female power inside Zagorka’s contemporary novels and articles in magazines Ženski list and Hrvatica. Zagorka’s appearance and work were stepping outside of the frames of her time and her journalistic work was a form of resistance by itself. She actively participated in society and insisted on existence of political dimension of female production and work while embedding feministic and national ideas in writing a romance genre. Her time was marked by conflict between modern and traditional and such conflict can be seen in her work as well whichmakes her modern views open to negotiation with tradition. By writing educational texts about women’s contribution to predominantly male history Zagorka gives her share in legitimization of female action and movement in public sphere. By using outsider position that was imposed on her, Zagorka opposes social structures of her time while trying to be part of them. In doing so, she is characterized by specific writing style and her own boundaries of genre which she molds in accordance with appropriate purposes. Keywords: Marija Jurić Zagorka, women's right, journalism, literary work, autobiograph