Hana Gregorová (30 January 1885 – 11 December 1958) was a Slovak author who explored women's lives in realistic terms and often focused on the issues of women's emancipation and inequalities with men.

Life

Hana Gregorová was born Anna Božena Lilgová on 30 January 1885 in Turócszentmárton in the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...

(now Martin, Slovakia). Largely self-educated, she married the realist writer Jozef Gregor-Tajovský in 1907 and they had a daughter, Dagmar Prášilová, who was born in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

in 1916. The family lived in

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

, from 1921 until her husband's death in 1940 at which time she moved to

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

, then part of the German-controlled

Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was a partially-annexation, annexed territory of Nazi Germany that was established on 16 March 1939 after the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945), German occupation of the Czech lands. The protector ...

, to live with her daughter's family. She died on 11 December 1958.

Works

Gregorová edited the magazine ''Slovak East'' () while the family lived in

Košice Košice is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of approximately 230,000, Košice is the second-largest cit ...

, Czechoslovakia, from 1919 to 1921. She later organized lectures on Czech and Slovak literature and art for the Society of Artists () and addressed the Congress of Slovak Writers in 1936 calling for children's literature to be realistic and not idealized. Gregorová was a member of the Society for Cultural Contacts with the USSR () and briefly became Chairwoman of the Union of Slovak Women () after 1945. From her first book of short stories published in 1912, ''Women'' (), Gregorová "revealed a deep empathy with women and a great interest in women’s emancipation. Gregorová explored the lives of women across the spectrum of social classes and generations, protesting against gender and other social inequalities. At the same time, she attempted to describe the inner, emotional lives of her female protagonists, primarily focusing on marriage and partnerships with men and the desire of women for alternatives, for more independent means of living."Farkašová, p. 167

References

;Sources * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gregorova, Hana 1885 births 1958 deaths Slovak feminists Slovak short story writers People from Martin, Slovakia