FEMINIST AMERICA IN JELENA DIMITRIJEVIĆ’S TRAVELOGUE

Abstract

In this paper we analyze the feminist structure of travel writing A New World or One Year in America written by Jelena Dimitrijević (1862-1945), Serbian writer whose views, writings and travelings overcame the stereotype of women as a passive construction, dependent on man and home hearth, physically and spiritually not capable to be expressed in male domains – artistic and scientific creativity, as well as in the act of travel. Denying these aspects of Balkan tradition, the writer approached the Western ideas of travel as a conquest of knowledge, which is not marked by gender and represents a benefit both for the passenger and his/her home country ‒ as a final consumer of the acquired knowledge. The study of Jelena Dimitrijevic’s artistic and life path was carried out in line with contemporary gynocritic and feminist theories of exposing women’s forgotten, forbidden and marginalized literary texts. The Serbian writer has attempted to examine empirically the issue of women’s liberation and feminist movements, lifestyle and customs of modern American society, as well as to understand the history and tradition of the new continent. Dimitrijević’s research has undergone various phases along the way – starting from the initial naive enthusiasm, built on the theoretical knowledge and prejudices, her image of America transformed over time. The concluding remarks emphasize that this travelogue is more important in contemporary Serbian feminist literature than in its year of publication (1934), because it fills gaps in general knowledge about the American women’s movement through the direct experience of a scientist who was able to shed light on it and put it in a comparative relationship with the opposite eastern world.