Feministički i spisateljski angažman Adele Milčinović na početku 20. stoljeća

Abstract

Adela Milčinović, a Croatian writer with European and American address, a tireless worker in the struggle for women and children’s rights in Croatia in the first decades of the 20th century, is rarely mentioned in the history of Croatian literature as a self-employed writer, and more often just as the wife of the Croatian writer Andrew Milčinović and a coauthor of a collection of short stories entitled Pod branom (1903). In addition to her writing engagement, especially ignored and unexplored remains her feminist engagement in the time when Croatian female writers were not seriously understood in their intentions and contribution to the modern literature, being placed in its periphery, which can be perceived from the description of “Domaće ognjište,” a magazine in which women writers appeared with their first contributions, as the work of “mostly gentle hearts” (Matoš, 1976: 40). This paper presents Milčinović’s remarkable feminist engagement, reflected in the texts she wrote, which are mostly reviews of the negative critiques of the Croatian writers on “female” writing in Croatia at the turn of the century and in the first decades of the 20th century. Furthermore, we have raised the question whether the feminist engagement of the writer influenced her narrower writing interest, which will be researched by answering the question to what extent Milčinović’s female characters could be a reflection of the time the writer belonged to, which saw the major changes in Croatia both in literary and social terms.