Růžena Jesenská (b. 1863

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, d. 1940

), was a decadent writer, a follower of

Julius Zeyer Julius Zeyer (26 April 1841 – 29 January 1901) was a Czech prose writer, poet, and playwright. Personal life Zeyer was born on 26 April 1841 in Prague. His mother, Elisabeth Eleonora (née Weisseles), came from a German Jewish-turned-Catholic ...

. She was a member of the

Czech Academy of Sciences The Czech Academy of Sciences (abbr. CAS, cs, Akademie věd České republiky, abbr. AV ČR) was established in 1992 by the Czech National Council as the Czech successor of the former Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and its tradition goes back ...

(elected 1929), sister of Marie Jesenská and aunt of writer

Milena Jesenská Milena Jesenská (; 10 August 1896 – 17 May 1944) was a Czech journalist, writer, editor and translator. Early life Jesenská was born in Prague, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic). Her family is believed to descend from Jan Jesenius, th ...

. Jesenská wrote novels, plays, short stories, children's books, and over 50 collections of poetry. Although few works by

Czech women writers This is a list of women writers who were born in the Czech Republic or Czechoslovakia or whose writings are closely associated with those countries. A *Madeleine Albright (1937–2022), American politician, non-fiction writer, autobiographer, wr ...

have been translated into English, writers, such as Jesenská, were widely published and read.

Biography

Růžena Jesenská was born into a family of many children and was the oldest daughter of an official who later became a businessman. She began training as a teacher in 1878 at St. Thomas Girls’ school in Prague, the same school she attended as a girl, and later taught at various schools in Prague. At the

Fin de siècle () is a French term meaning "end of century,” a phrase which typically encompasses both the meaning of the similar English idiom "turn of the century" and also makes reference to the closing of one era and onset of another. Without context ...

in 1907, she was forced to retire from teaching and entered a career in journalism. Jesenská traveled extensively through the Baltic countries, France, Italy, and Russia and published under the pseudonyms, Eva Z Hluboké and Martin Věžník. Her first novella was published in the journal,

Světozor __NOTOC__ ''Světozor'' ("Seeing the World") was a Czech-language illustrated magazine published in 19th and 20th century. History and profile ''Světozor'' was created by Pavel Josef Šafařík in 1834. Šafařík was inspired by the British p ...

, under the male pseudonym, Martin Věžník. She first wrote didactic literature for girls and young women before writing poems, drama, and novels, including 3 biographical novels. Her writing largely excludes the sentimentalism found in other Czech women's writing of the 1880s, and instead, she incorporates symbolism through "truncated images and syntax." Critic Jan Opolsky describes her writing as "against the current," and

Max Brod Max Brod ( he, מקס ברוד; 27 May 1884 – 20 December 1968) was a German-speaking Bohemian, later Israeli, author, composer, and journalist. Although he was a prolific writer in his own right, he is best remembered as the friend and biog ...

critiqued "her chauvinistic Czech attitudes and philistine outlook."

Selected Works

Poetry

''Rudé západy'' (Crimson Sunsets, 1904)

At her own expensive, Jesenská published this collection of poems which constitute "a sensualist hymn to sexual passion." There is suspicion among critics that these poems describe her secret relationship with painter and photographer,

Alfons Mucha Alfons Maria Mucha (; 24 July 1860 – 14 July 1939), known internationally as Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech painter, illustrator and graphic artist, living in Paris during the Art Nouveau period, best known for his distinctly stylized and decora ...

. ''Mladi'' (1926) Jesenská accounts for "moral confrontations and animosities that affected advancement in her career" in this autobiographical collection of poems.

Prose

''Jarmila'' (1894) and its sequel, ''Jarní píseň'' (Song of Spring, 1902)

These novels provide manuals of etiquette for bourgeois young women.

''Román dítěte'' (Romance of a Child, 1905)

In this psychological study of girl entering prostitution, Jesenská explores love as "an inspiration for vitality" and the power of rejected love to mentally and physically destroy.

''Mimo svět'' (A World Apart'','' 1909)

Jesenská's volume of 14 stories with narration that is often wooden and melodramatic. Many center around topics of incest, oppressive lesbian love, and present the woman as a victim. Decadent themes and motifs presented include "the outsider, ‘abnormal’ sexuality, and the association of sex and death." This volume inspired the title of Kathleen Hayes' anthology, ''A world apart and other stories: Czech women writers at the Fin de siècle''.

''Tanecnice'' (The Dancer, 1912)

Jesenská paints a psychologically-detailed portrait of the first-person-narrator heroine.

Plays

''Estera'' (published and performed 1909)

Estera is a symbolist tragedy set in Renaissance Bohemia and composed in

iambic pentameter Iambic pentameter () is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line; rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called "feet". "Iambi ...

s. ''Attila'' (published and performed 1919) Attila is a Neo-Romantic play that concerns the battle between passion (Germanic) and love (Slav).

Other Literary Contributions

Jesenská published in newspapers for women, including Ženské listy, Ženský obzor, and Časopis učitelek. She was briefly a theater critic for Ženský svět (Women's World) in 1921. Founded prior to World War I, these periodicals covering "

the woman question "The woman question", which is translated from the French term ''querelle des femmes'' (literally, "dispute of women"), refers both in historiography to an intellectual debate from the 1400s to the 1700s on the nature of women and feminist campai ...

" moved discussions of women and gender into the cultural sphere. Jesenská was a regular contributor to the Czech literary magazine, Zlata, Praha, and edited the children's periodical, ''Dětské Besedy Máje'' (Children's Maytime chat).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jesenska, Ruzena 1863 births 1940 deaths Czechoslovak writers Czechoslovak women novelists Writers from Prague 20th-century women writers Czech women writers Czech literature Writers from Austria-Hungary