Gabriela Preissová, née Gabriela Sekerová, sometimes used

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

Matylda Dumontová (23 March 1862 in

Kutná Hora Kutná Hora (; ) is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 22,000 inhabitants. The history of Kutná Hora is linked to silver mining, which made it a rich and rapidly developing town. The centre of Kutná Hora, i ...

– 27 March 1946 in

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 ...

), was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

writer and playwright. Her play ''Její pastorkyňa'' was the basis for the opera ''

Jenůfa ''Její pastorkyňa'' (''Her Stepdaughter''; commonly known as ''Jenůfa'' ) is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček to a Czech libretto by the composer, based on the Play (theatre), play ''Její pastorkyňa'' by Gabriela Preissová. It was ...

'' by

Leoš Janáček Leoš Janáček (, 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, Music theory, music theorist, Folkloristics, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian folk music, Moravian and other Slavs, Slavic music, includin ...

, as well as a film by

Miroslav Cikán Miroslav Cikán (11 February 1896 – 1 February 1962 in Prague) was a Czechoslovak film director. He frequently worked with actors such as Hugo Haas, Jan Werich, and Vlasta Burian. Filmography *''The Mystery of the Blue Room'' (1933) *''Dum na ...

. His earlier opera '' The Beginning of a Romance'' was also based on one of her stories. Preissová mostly wrote stories full of optimism and the joy of life idealising village life. Her stories first appeared in the early 1890s. The more significant appeared in a three-volume collection. Her books, written in the 1920s, were about the tragic rural life of the Carinthian

Slavs The Slavs or Slavic people are groups of people who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, and ...

, usually with a strong woman as a heroine. These dramas didn't achieve the artistic spontaneity of her early work. Themes of her stories were mostly the affairs of young lovers and the obstacles to their consummation. Some tales were set to music, such as ''Eva'' by

Josef Bohuslav Foerster Josef Bohuslav Foerster (30 December 1859 – 29 May 1951) was a Czech composer and musicologist. He is often referred to as J. B. Foerster, and his surname is sometimes spelled Förster. Life Foerster was born in Prague. His ancestors were of ...

and ''Jenůfa'', an opera by Janáček. "Jenufa" was published in a 1999 collection of plays:
Eastern Promise: Seven Plays from Central and Eastern Europe
'.

References

* Iveta Jusova. "Gabriela Preissová's Women-Centered Texts: Subverting the Myth of the Homogeneous Nation." Slavic and East European Journal 49:1 (Spring 2005): 63–78.

External links

* 1862 births 1946 deaths Czech women dramatists and playwrights 19th-century women writers 19th-century Czech dramatists and playwrights 20th-century women writers 20th-century Czech dramatists and playwrights People from Kutná Hora Burials at Vyšehrad Cemetery Dramatists and playwrights from Austria-Hungary {{CzechRepublic-writer-stub