ZAGREB, LJUBLJANA, PRAGUE: THE CORRESPONDENCE OF ZOFKA KVEDER WITH HER DAUGHTER VLADIMIRA JELOVŠEK

Abstract

A Slovenian writer, publicist, translator and editor Zofka Kveder (1878—1926) was born in Ljubljana, although she later lived in Trieste, Bern, Munich, Prague and, from 1906 till her death, in Zagreb where she is also buried. In addition to short prose: Misterij žene (1900), Odsevi (1901), Iz naših krajev (1903), two drama books: Ljubezen (1901), Amerikanci (1908) and the novel Njeno življenje (1914), all written in Slovene, she also published two collections of short prose in Croatian: Jedanaest novela (1913), Po putevima života (1926), a novel Hanka: ratne uspomene (1918), two dramas: Arditi na otoku Krku (1922), Unuk kraljeviča Marka (1922), and a collection of short prose Iskre (1905) which comprises novelettes in Slovene and Croatian. In her literal and publicity works she was pointing out the discrimination of women and she also fought for their rights by establishing and managing a magazine Ženski svijet (Jugoslavenska žena).
The article treats her personal correspondence, which has not yet been published, and is kept in her legacy papers Zapuščina Zofke Kveder (National library in Ljubljana, Ms 1113), as an emigrant correspondence. It represents analysis results of an eight-year (1912–1920) correspondence between the mother, living in Zagreb, and her adolescent daughter Vladimira Jelovšek, which started because of the daughter’s schooling in Ljubljana and Prague, and ended with Vladimira’s death on her nineteenth birthday, as a consequence of the Spanish influenza. The correspondence offers a diverse field for the research of their relationship and emotional world, and is in the meantime, a rich source for studying the reality, problems and worries of two Slovenian-Croatian emigrants in the beginning of the previous century.