Full Description
Women are conspicuously absent from traditional cultural histories of south-east Europe. This book addresses that imbalance by describing the contribution of women to literary culture in the Orthodox/ Ottoman areas of Serbia and Bosnia.
The first complete literary history in relation to women's writing in south-east Europe. The author provides a broad chronological account of this contribution, dividing the book into two main parts; the earlier period up until the eighteenth century concentrates on the projections of gender through the medium of oral tradition and the lives of a handful of educated women in medieval Serbia and the few works of literature they left. Hawkesworth also looks at the written literature produced by women, first in the mid-nineteenth century and then at the turn of the century. The second part focuses on the trials and tribulations that affected feminism and women's literature throughout the twentieth century. The author finishes by highlighting the new women's movement, 1975-1990, a great period for women in Yugoslavia which created a stimulating atmosphere for outstanding pieces of women's journalism, prose and verse, culminating in the creation of new women's studies courses in many universities.
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Cultural Baggage
Chapter 2: Women's Contribution to the Oral Tradition
Chapter 3: Women's Voices in the Middle Ages
Chapter 4: The Nineteenth Century
Chapter 5: The Turn of the Century: New Opportunities: 1900-1914
Chapter 6: Between the Two World Wars: Modernization
Chapter 7: The Second Yugoslavia: 1945-1991
Chapter 8: Women's Writing in Bosnia-Herzegovina
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
