Depuis 1910, elle s'est également imposée comme narratrice. Ses histoires apparaissent par tranches sous forme de romans d’appendice, puis publiées en volume. Le titre le plus célèbre, La sorcière de Gri (Gri ka vještica), est en fait un cycle de sept romans historiques qui s'inspirent à la fois de la tradition populaire et de sources documentaires. Son regard de genre crée et illumine des personnages féminins aux caractères positifs: ses héroïnes sont des femmes intelligentes, entreprenantes, courageuses et déterminées qui se battent pour la justice. L'une de ces protagonistes est la comtesse noire, qui défend les femmes accusées de sorcellerie. Une autre, Jadranka, protagoniste du roman du même nom, soutient le droit des femmes au travail comme source d'autonomie économique et de liberté. Comme le dit Simona Amadori, "... l'intention historique et narrative se confond avec le besoin de Zagorka de secouer les consciences, représentant la recherche de l'égalité et de la justice à travers des femmes en dehors des sentiers battus". «Abandonner ma plume, c'est abandonner ma vie» dit Zagorka dans son écriture autobiographique La pierre sur la route (Kamen na cesti), et en fait elle écrit tout au long de sa longue vie: des romans (une vingtaine) dont certains inaugurent des genres jamais pratiqué auparavant par des auteurs croates tels que le policier et la science-fiction, des textes théâtraux, des scénarios de films, sans oublier le formidable apport de réflexion contenu dans ses articles journalistiques et dans ses textes polémiques en faveur de l'égalité des sexes et des droits des femmes (suffrage des femmes, droit à l'éducation, au travail et à la propriété). Les critiques n'ont pas été bienveillantes sur la production de ses récits, mais Zagorka a compris que la littérature populaire pouvait être un formidable véhicule pour transmettre son message de justice et d'égalité des sexes à un très large public. Même la dernière partie de sa vie n'a pas été facile. Pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, elle a été persécutée par le régime Ustaša qui a confisqué ses biens et lui a interdit toute activité publique. Elle aurait aimé rejoindre les rangs des partisans, mais désormais elle avait un certain âge ... et, une fois la guerre terminée, ses positions féministes n'étaient pas acceptables pour le nouveau régime socialiste: pour les défenseurs du réalisme socialiste en littérature, la question féminine ne doit pas être séparée de la lutte des classes, à laquelle elle est subordonnée. Elle meurt le 30 novembre 1957. Sa maison de via Dolac à Zagreb, après quelques péripéties sur l’hérédité, devient une maison-musée, abritant l'un des plus importants centres d'études féminines. Plusieurs rues des villes et villages de Croatie portent son nom, 13 selon les recherches d'Ana Kuzmani et Ivana Peri publiées en italien sur le portail en ligne de l'Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa, et au centre culturel de via Dolac, sont organisées chaque année des initiatives qui rappellent sa valeur. Il existe également un guide de Zagreb pour découvrir les lieux de Zagorka. Même Google lui a dédié un doodle à l'occasion du 143e anniversaire de sa naissance. En Italie, cependant, aucun de ses romans n'a été traduit et très peu de textes ont été écrits à son sujet dans notre langue.

Quiconque a lu jusqu’ici pourra dire qu'il en sait au moins un peu plus ...

 

Traduzione inglese
Syd Stapleton

In Zagreb, a statue of Marija Jurić Zagorka portrays her as a sort of aging Mary Poppins, holding a stylish umbrella and dressed in Belle Epoque clothing. But the evocation of Mary Poppins, with her determination and proud bearing, is absolutely appropriate. As Ana Pavli says, Zagorka "was the first professional political journalist in Croatia and South Eastern Europe, an advocate for women's rights, one of the most widely read Croatian writers ever, a co-founder of the Croatian Journalists Association, a writer, playwright, screenwriter, pioneer of science fiction, founder of the first women's labor organization in Croatia, and the list goes on. This is what makes Marija Jurić Zagorka a true feminist icon." In short, she was a leading figure, whose great merits have only been recognized in recent years. She was born on March 2, 1873 in the village of Negovec near Vrbovec, in the Zagreb region. At that time, Croatia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, within which various nationalities had been developing aspirations for independence for some time. In particular, the Croats did not welcome the “Magyarization” policy implemented by the regime in Budapest. Marija's father, Ivan Jurić, was the administrator of Baron Geza Rauch's Golubovec estate, so the family was relatively wealthy. Nevertheless, Marija's childhood must not have been easy, with an authoritarian and bigoted mother, hostile to this daughter who was precociously intolerant of rules. Young Marija, intelligent and studious, received elementary education at the estate, from private tutors, together with the baron's children. She was an excellent student, so good that the baron expressed willingness to pay for her studies at a high school in Switzerland. But her mother saw that separation as a danger to her moral education, and refused to allow her to go. As a result, Marija was enrolled in a girls' high school at the convent of the Sisters of Mercy in Zagreb. Already as a child, Marija had given her mother difficulty, resisting efforts to shape her according a feminine “ideal”. Then, at the age of ten, she embarrassed her family by taking a position in defense of Croatian identity, in open conflict with the Baron's pro-Hungarian political positions. At twelve, she created and printed her first newspaper by hand. At eighteen, she added to the feat by publishing an editorial under a male pseudonym, on Matija Gubec, a Croatian peasant of the sixteenth century who had led a popular revolt against the feudal nobility. Marija loved social justice, and she loved the possibility of freely expressing her thoughts, her convictions, and her ideals in words. She also came to love acting. Marija, an unsettled high school student, would have liked to become an actress, but a girl “of a good family” was certainly not allowed to pursue such a scandalous career.

Her mother decided to put an end to this rebellious drift by forcing her into an arranged marriage with Andrija Matraja, a Hungarian railway official almost twice her age. Married at eighteen, Marija followed her husband to Hungary. He wanted her to be a submissive wife, an "angel of the hearth", converted to his nationalist politics. But she didn’t give up, or give in. She learned the language "of her colonizer", and she learned to use the telegraph, two skills that would turn out to be very useful in her future career as a journalist. The marriage lasted only three years, years of physical and psychological abuse from which Marija freed herself by fleeing and returning to her homeland. She managed to divorce Matraja who, however, put the responsibility for the failure of the marriage on her, accusing her of mental instability (he had also had her locked up in a psychiatric hospital). Again, it was her father who stood up for her while her mother testified against her. As a result of the process, she lost the right to alimony payments, and the return of her personal property left under the marital roof. Finally, having achieved her freedom, she settled in Zagreb where she began to write and thus began her true journalistic career. Those early days were really tough. She worked as a proofreader in the editorial office of "Obzor", the most important periodical in Zagreb and there, in an almost clandestine way, she began to write. She was forced to do it shut in a closet-like room, hidden from the eyes of other journalists, who derided and criticized her heavily, convinced that writing, and in particular political writing, was a male prerogative. But writing was her reason for living and Marija didn't give up. Zagorka is the pseudonym with which she signed her writings. She was determined, and so capable that for five months she managed, alone, during the popular revolt against the authoritarian regime of Khuen, to edit and publish the newspaper. She herself, like her colleagues, ended up in prison. She took that as an opportunity to write a theatrical work in which she reinterprets, in a feminist key, an episode of Croatian history, giving credit to the oral tradition that saw a woman at the head of the peasant revolt of 1553. Starting from 1895, during the ten years in which she worked in "Obzor", she dealt with foreign policy and economics relating to the Balkan area, in particular with regard to relations between Croatia and Hungary. She was the first correspondent political analyst from Budapest and Vienna, and with her writing inaugurated an innovative style in the journalism of her country. Meanwhile, she also collaborated with other magazines, wrote fiction, and fought with words and actions for gender equality. She founded the first labor union for working women, and in 1903 she organized the first women's demonstration in Zagreb. Her passion for women's emancipation found a voice in the "Ženski list", the first periodical aimed at women, and then in "Hrvatica", an entirely self-financed feminist newspaper.

Beginning in 1910, she established herself as an author of fiction. Her stories appeared in installments as serialized novels, and then were published as books. Her most famous title, Gri ka vještica (The Witch of Gri), is actually a cycle of seven historical novels that draw on both popular tradition and documentary sources. Her gender consciousness created and illuminated female characters with positive characteristics. Her heroines are intelligent, enterprising, courageous and determined women who fight for justice. One of these protagonists is the Black Countess, defender of women accused of witchcraft. Another, Jadranka, protagonist of the novel of the same name, supports the right of women to work, as a means to their economic autonomy and freedom. As Simona Amadori says, "... the historical and narrative intent merges with Zagorka's need to shake consciences, representing the search for equality and justice through women outside the box". "Giving up my pen means giving up my life" says Zagorka in her autobiography, The Stone on the Road (Kamen na cesti), and in fact she wrote throughout her long life. She wrote some twenty novels, some of which introduced genres never before used by Croatian authors, such as detective and science fiction. She also wrote plays and film scripts, beyond the formidable contributions of thought contained in her journalistic articles and in her polemical texts in support of gender equality and women's rights (women's suffrage, the right to education, work and property). Critics have not been kind to her fictional work, but Zagorka understood that popular literature could be a formidable vehicle for getting her message of justice and gender equality to a very wide audience. Even the last part of her life was not easy. During the Second World War she suffered persecution from the fascist Ustaša regime, which confiscated her property and prohibited any public activity by her. She would have liked to join the ranks of the partisans, but by then she was of a certain age. After the war, her feminist positions were not acceptable to the new socialist regime. For the proponents of “socialist realism” in literature, the women’s question should not be separated from the class struggle, to which it was subordinate. She died on November 30, 1957. Her home in via Dolac in Zagreb, after some legal squabbles, became home to a museum - one of the most important centers of Women's Studies. At that museum, the cultural center in via Dolac, there are undertakings every year that recall Marija’s enormous importance. There is also a Zagreb guide to discovering the places tied to Zagorka’s activities. Several streets in cities and towns of Croatia are named after her – a total of 13 of them, according to research by Ana Kuzmani and Ivana Peri (published in Italian on the online portal of the Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa). Even Google dedicated a doodle to her on the 143rd anniversary of her birth. In Italy, however, none of her novels have been translated, and very little has been written about her in our language.

Anyone who has read this far will now be able to say that they know at least a little more...

 

Traduzione croata

Statua koja je prikazuje, u Zagrebu, podsjeća – možda zbog malog gracioznog kišobrana i odjeće tipične za Belle époque – na Mary Poppins pomalo opterećenu bremenom godina, koja s odlučnim stavom i ponosnim držanjem korača svojim životnim putem. Ta predstava je potpuno vjerna onome što je ova gospođa bila. Prema riječima Ane Pavlić, Marija Jurić Zagorka je bila “prva profesionalna politička novinarka u Hrvatskoj i jugoistočnoj Europi, zagovornica ženskih prava, jedna od najčitanijih hrvatskih književnica svih vremena, suosnivačica Hrvatskog novinarskog društva, književnica, dramatičarka, scenaristica, pionirka znanstvene fantastike, osnivačica prve ženske sindikalne organizacije u Hrvatskoj, i mogli bismo nastaviti dalje nabrajati. To je ono što Mariju Jurić Zagorku čini pravom ikonom feminizma“. Dakle, jedna istaknuta ličnost čije su velike zasluge prepoznate tek posljednjih godina. Rođena je 1873. godine, vjerojatno 2. ožujka, u selu Negovec kraj Vrbovca, u Zagrebačkoj županiji. U to doba Hrvatska je bila sastavni dio Austro-Ugarske monarhije, unutar koje su se već dugo vremena rasplamsavale težnje brojnih naroda za osamostaljenjem. Hrvati su gledali s naročitim podozrenjem na politiku mađarizacije koju su provodile vlasti u Budimpešti. Marijin otac, Ivan Jurić, bio je upravitelj imanja Golubovec u vlasništvu baruna Geze Raucha, dakle obitelj je bila dobrostojeća. Međutim, Marija nije imala lako djetinjstvo, uz autoritarnu i bigotnu majku, netrpeljivu prema kćeri koja je rano počela pokazivati odbojnost prema pravilima. Mlada Marija, inteligentna i marljiva u učenju, prvu poduku dobiva u dvorcu od privatnih učitelja, zajedno s barunovom djecom. Bila je dobra učenica, toliko dobra da se barun ponudio da joj plati studije na jednom institutu u Švicarskoj. Ali Marijina majka, koja je u tom udaljavanju od kuće vidjela opasnost po Marijin moralni odgoj, kategorički se usprotivila. Tako se Marija upisala u jednu žensku gimnaziju pri zagrebačkom Samostanu sestara milosrdnica. Još kao djevojčica Marija je stvarala nevolje, udaljavajući se od ženskog ideala prema kojem ju je njezina majka željela oblikovati. U svojoj desetoj godini ponijela se neprimjereno i dovela svoju obitelj u nelagodnu poziciju, stavši u obranu hrvatskog identiteta, što je bilo u otvorenom kontrastu s barunovim promađarskim političkim stavovima; u dvanaestoj godini je ručno izradila svoje prve novine. Kao osamnaestogodišnjakinja ponovila je taj poduhvat, objavljujući, pod muškim pseudonimom, uvodnik o Matiji Gupcu, hrvatskom seljaku iz 16. stoljeća koji je predvodio narodnu bunu protiv feudalaca. Marija je bila privržena socijalnoj pravdi; voljela je slobodno izražavati riječima vlastite misli, uvjerenja i ideale; voljela je i glumiti... Željela je biti glumica, ta nemirna gimnazijalka, ali jednoj djevojci iz dobre obitelji nije bilo dopušteno izabrati glumu i tako napraviti skandal...

To je bilo dovoljno da Marijina majka odluči stati na kraj tom buntovničkom ponašanju, primoravajući je da stupi u dogovoren brak sa Andrijom Matrajem, činovnikom mađarskih željeznica, koji je bio skoro duplo stariji od nje. Tako se Marija udala u osamnaestoj godini i otišla s mužem u Mađarsku. On je želio da Marija bude pokorna supruga, “anđeo kućnog ognjišta“, i da prigrli “njegov“ nacionalistički ideal, ali ona nije popustila. Naučila je jezik “svog kolonizatora“, naučila je i koristiti telegraf, i te sposobnosti će joj biti od velike koristi tijekom novinarske karijere koja je bila pred njom. Brak je trajao svega tri godine, obilježene fizičkim i psihičkim nasiljem, kojeg se Marija oslobodila pobjegavši i vrativši se u domovinu. Uspjela se razvesti od Matraja, koji je međutim prebacio na Mariju odgovornost za neuspjeh njihovog braka, optuživši je za psihičku nestabilnost (čak ju je dao zatvoriti u psihijatrijsku bolnicu). Marijin otac je, još jednom, stao u njenu obranu, dok je majka svjedočila protiv nje. Tako je Marija izgubila pravo na alimentaciju i na povrat svoje osobne imovine koju je ostavila u supružnikovom domu. Nakon ponovnog osvajanja slobode, Marija se nastanila u Zagrebu gdje je počela pisati i od tog trenutka je krenula njezina prava novinarska karijera. U početku je bilo zaista teško, radila je kao korektorica u redakciji Obzora, tada najznačajnijeg zagrebačkog lista, i tu je, gotovo krišom, počela pisati. Bila je primorana pisati zatvorena u jednoj sobici, daleko od očiju ostalih novinara koji su je ismijavali i oštro kritizirali, uvjereni da je pisanje, posebice ono političko, muška domena. Ali pisanje je za Mariju predstavljalo smisao života i nije odustala. Zagorka je pseudonim kojim je potpisivala svoje tekstove. Bila je odlučna i toliko sposobna da je punih pet mjeseci, u vrijeme narodne bune protiv autoritarnog režima Khuena Hédervárya, sama uređivala Obzor. I Marija, kao i njene kolege, završila je u zatvoru i iskoristila to vrijeme za pisanje drame u kojoj je reinterpretirala, u feminističkom ključu, jedan događaj iz hrvatske povijesti, pozivajući se na usmenu tradiciju po kojoj je jedna žena predvodila seljačku bunu 1573. Počev od 1895., tijekom više od deset godina koliko je provela u redakciji Obzora, Marija se bavila vanjskopolitičkim i ekonomskim pitanjima vezanim za balkansku regiju, posebno odnosima između Hrvatske i Mađarske; bila je prva politička analitičarka dopisnica iz Budimpešte i Beča i svojim tekstovima postavila je temelje jednog inovativnog stila u hrvatskom novinarstvu. U međuvremenu je surađivala i sa drugim časopisima, pisala prozu, borila se za jednakost spolova riječima i djelima: osnovala je prvi ženski sindikat i 1903. organizirala je prvi prosvjed žena u Zagrebu. Njena strastvena borba za žensku emancipaciju pronašla je izraz u Ženskom listu, prvom časopisu u Hrvatskoj namijenjenom ženama, a potom u Hrvatici, feminističkom listu koji je Marija u potpunosti financirala o vlastitom trošku.

Marija se 1910. godine afirmirala i kao spisateljica. Njezine priče počele su izlaziti u nastavcima, kao feljtonski romani, da bi tek kasnije bile objavljene u celini. Marijino najpoznatije djelo, “Grička vještica“, zapravo je ciklus od sedam povijesnih romana koji se oslanjaju kako na narodnu tradiciju tako i na dokumentarne izvore. Njezin rodni pogled stvara i osvetljava ženske likove koji imaju pozitivne osobine: Marijine junakinje su inteligentne, poduzimljive, hrabre i odlučne žene koje se bore za pravdu. Jedna od njih je kontesa Nera koja brani žene optužene za vještičarenje. Tu je potom Jadranka, junakinja istoimenog romana, koja se zalaže za pravo žena na rad kao izvor ekonomske neovisnosti i slobode. Prema riječima Simone Amadori, “povijesni i pripovjedački cilj stapa se s Marijinom potrebom da prodrma svijesti, predstavljajući traganje za jednakošću i pravdom kroz žene izvan okvira“. “Ako bih se odrekla svoje olovke odrekla bih se svog života“, kaže Zagorka u svom autobiografskom romanu “Kamen na cesti“. I zaista, pisala je tijekom cijelog svog dugačkog života: romane (dvadesetak), od kojih su neki pionirska ostvarenja u žanrovima u kojima se hrvatski autori ranije nikada nisu oprobavali, poput kriminalističkog romana i znanstvene fantastike; dramske tekstove, scenarije za filmove, da ne pominjemo Marijin izvanredan misaoni doprinos sadržan u njezinim novinskim člancima i polemičkim tekstovima u kojima se zalaže za ravnopravnost spolova i za ženska prava (pravo glasa, pravo na obrazovanje, na rad i na imovinu). Kritika nije bila blagonaklona prema njezinom književnom stvaralaštvu, ali Zagorka je shvatila da bi popularna književnost mogla predstavljati izvanredno sredstvo za prenošenje poruke pravde i jednakosti spolova mnogo široj publici. Ni posljednji period Marijinog života nije bio lak. Tijekom Drugog svjetskog rata pretrpjela je progon od ustaškog režima koji joj je oduzeo imovinu i zabranio da se bavi bilo kakvom javnom djelatnošću. Htjela se priključiti partizanima, ali nije više bila toliko mlada... Po pokončanju rata, njezini feministički stavovi nisu bili prihvatljivi novom socijalističkom režimu. Prema zagovornicima socijalističkog realizma u književnosti, žensko pitanje nije se moglo odvajati od klasne borbe kojoj je bilo podređeno. Marija Jurić Zagorka preminula je 29. studenog 1957. Nakon izvjesnih peripetija oko ostavinskih prava, njezin stan na Dolcu 8, u Zagrebu, postao je memorijalni muzej i sjedište jednog od najznačajnijih centara za ženske studije. Prema jednom istraživanju Ane Kuzmanić i Ivane Perić, objavljenom na portalu Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa, po Mariji Jurić Zagorki je nazvano nekoliko ulica, ukupno trinaest, u gradovima i manjim mjestima u Hrvatskoj, a u kulturnom centru na Dolcu se svake godine održavaju brojne inicijative koje podsjećaju na Zagorkin značaj. Čak joj je i Google posvetio doodle na 143. godišnjicu rođenja. U Italiji, međutim, nijedan Zagorkin roman nije preveden i o njoj je na talijanskom jeziku napisano vrlo malo.

Tko je stigao dovde sa čitanjem moći će reći da o njoj zna barem malo više.

Ovaj tekst je nastao u suradnji sa OBCTranseuropa.