The Journalism of Milena Jesenská: A Critical Voice in Interwar Central Europe by Kathleen s> Hayes (review)

Abstract

742 SEER, 83, 4, 2005 the minds of those who see endemic anti-Semitismin Florenskii'scorrespondence with Rozanov and musings on 'blood-sacrifice'.In the same way, the Christocentricnatureof the 'turnto religion'which led to Florenskii'sentering the Moscow Theological Academy permeates all these publications and shoulddo more than any polemical 'defence'to reassurethosewho cast doubt on his Orthodoxy. New, and of primaryimportance to the understandingof Florenskii's relationship to the 'New Religious Consciousness' and early contributionsto Symbolistjournals, are two letters to the Merezhkovskiisset in an informed discussionof his linkswith theirjournal Novyi put'.Twenty-six letters from Sergei Solov'ev (Florenskii's answers are unfortunately lost), published by 0. Ia. Zotkina and N. V. Kotrelev, complement the Briusov/ Belyi connection. In incorporating the work of other scholars, the overall editor has performeda service, and the commentaryto the twenty-twoletters she co-introducesand publisheswith L. A. Novikova is a mine of information on their author A. S. Petrovskii,a fellow-studentat the Moscow Theolog:ical Academy a year seniorto Florenskiiand a close friendof Belyi's.V. A. Nikitin and V. I. Kupchenko contribute a useful piece on the relationship between Florenskiiand MaximilianVoloshin. This book, which should be available to all specialists, can be obtained direct from the publishers, e-mail Koshelev.ad@mtu_net.ru or from the Danish booksellerG. E. C. GAD, e-mail Slavic(gad.dk. Department ofRussianStudies AVRIL PYMAN UniversityofDurham Hayes, Kathleen (ed. and trans.). ThejournalismofMilena esenska.A Critical Voice in Interwar Central Europe. Berghahn Books, New Yorkand Oxford, 2003. Viii + 232 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. ?20.00. MILENA JESENSKA's reputationin the Westhasprimarilybeen based upon her love affairwith FrankKafka, and readerswill know her through the filterof Kafka's published letters to her. She was, however, an able and courageous journalist, publishing over I,ooo articles in Czech newspapers and journals during the interwarperiod, until her arrestin 1939 and subsequentdeath in Ravensbruck concentration camp in May I944. Kathleen Hayes must therefore be commended for recasting her image through the judicious selection and fluid translationof thirty-eightof her articles,thereby allowing an English-speakingaudiencedirectaccesstoJesenska'swritings.This voluine has a broad appeal, from those interested in interwar Czechoslovak politics and culture, to historiansof Central Europe or students of women's studies, and has clearly been targeted at a general rather than specialist audience. Furthermore, Hayes provides a comprehensive introduction that refers beyond the compassof the selected articlestoJesenska'swider output,tracing the development of consistentlyprevalent themes, as well as recurringmotifs and phrases, and interpreting the journalist's preoccupations against the backgroundof events in the personaland politicalspheres. Approximately a third of Hayes's introduction focuses on the relationsh.ip betweenJesenskaand Kafka. One interpretsfrom the intertextualweaving of REVIEWS 743 subtexts (which Hayes identifies in her footnotes) that Kafka is sometimes Jesenska's implied reader, the mirror to whom she holds up nature and herself, conveying a secret reciprocity through the public vehicle of her column. Hayes makes the point that Kafka was interested in Jesenska's writings, considering himself a devoted reader and responding to articles as though personallyaddressed,and that (both direct and indirect)referencesto Kafka appear in Jesenska's articles from his ending of their relationship in January I92 I, when he forbade her to write letters to him, until his death in I924. In the articles'following his cessation of their relationship, there is a noticeable lack of Jesensk'a'scustomary vigour, as she hones in on the individual'sisolationin the world, on pain and suffering. The collection is dividedinto three sections:articlesfrom Tribuna, I920-22; articles from iNdrodnz listy and Lidovenovlny,I922-29; and articles from Pfitomnost, I938-39; the divisionsserveto captureand reveal somethingof the changing atmosphere of interwar Central Europe. Hayes explains that Jesenska's reputation in the 1920S was mainly derived from contributing pieces to the Women'spage of severalnewspapers,but even in herjournalism of the 1930s themes articulatedin thisearlyperiodpersist.There areof course some significant modulations in the subject-matterand tone through these divisions, as Jesenska repositions her focus from fashion (used as a medium through which to discusspersonal morality)to seriouspolitical commentary. Her debates are neverthelessunderpinnedby some core beliefs about how to be a decent human being, demonstrating always an awareness for the forgotten person at...