Women, Romance and Romantic Nationalism in Dragojla Jarnević's Dva pira (Two Wedding Celebrations, 1864) and M. E. Francis’s Dark Rosaleen (1917)

Klepač, Tihana. (2011). Women, Romance and Romantic Nationalism in Dragojla Jarnević's Dva pira (Two Wedding Celebrations, 1864) and M. E. Francis’s Dark Rosaleen (1917). Studia Romanica et Anglica Zagrabiensia, 56. pp. 137-158. ISSN 0039-3339

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Abstract

While the reasons for the choice of a romance novel by the two authors and the positioning of the genre within the Croatian, and the literary tradition of Irish writing in English differ, the historical context which motivates the two novels is highly similar. Namely, the Illyrian revival of the 1830s in Croatia corresponds in spirit and social atmosphere to the Irish national revival associated with the Home Rule as the two nations begin their anti-colonialist projects. Under a strong influence of the romantic nationalism of the day, both, Jarnević and Francis, construct their female characters principally through their participation in the national process. Within this ideology, any venture outside the boundaries of the outlined roles leads to a life of misery, which is a mode of expiation for the transgression; the order of the universe thus restored. However, by making it clear that the wrongs done to women are inseparable from those inflicted to the Croatian and the Irish nation respectively, the two authors transcend this typical portrayal of women in nationalist movements, thus contributing tothe formulation of the female anti-colonialist narrative. Finally, while Francis never abandons the conventions of the romance genre, and leaves her heroines locked in a typical representation of the day, Jarnević takes a step further by stretching the genre to depict an emerging female consciousness, thus earning the name of a Croatian proto-feminist (Andrea Zlatar).

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