Women Writers as cultural transmitters

Objectives and competences

The aim of the course is to train students to understand the phenomenon of cultural transmission and cultural mediation, the role of women in these processes and their importance for the European cultural space.

Prerequisites

The successful integration in the study course is connected with the knowledge of other literary-historical and cultural historical formations in the field of literature and culture.

Content

LECTURES
• Explanation of the terms cultural transfer, cultural transmission, transcultural contacts, the role of women in intercultural contacts (2 hours),
• Transmission of ideas: Mrs. de Staël's Cultural Mediation in the works of Corinne or Italy and About Germany (2 hours),
• Transmission of ideas: Fredrika Bremer's Transatlantic Feminist Union (2 hours),
• Transmitting ideas from abroad home: Camilla Collet as a European postcard (2 hours),
• Communicating ideas about the new woman as an artist: Laura Marholm and her Book of Women in Fin de siècle Discourse (2 hours),
• Cultural mediators as translators: from medieval to modern translators (4 hours),
• Translators and mediators of George Sand's literary work and ideas (2 hours),
• Editors of magazines and newspapers as cultural mediators – Marica Nadlišek Bartol (2 hours),
• Cultural mediator Zofka Kveder: a case study (2 hours).

SEMINAR: guided discussions will be held in the framework of seminar meetings, which will be related to individual topics of lectures. Students will prepare short presentations of cultural intermediaries and make passwords for the Slovenian Wikipedia.

Intended learning outcomes

The student understands the concepts related to cultural mediation, understands how gender has influenced the functioning of women in the cultural space. He is able to collect material for the cultural mediator, study it and write down his findings in the form of an encyclopedic motto.

Readings

  • Gisela Bock: 2004. Ženske v evropski zgodovini: od srednjega veka do danes. Ljubljana: Založba /*cf.
  • Petra Broomans, Sandra van Vorst (ur.): Rethinking Cultural Transfer and Transmission. Reflections and New Perspectives. Groningen: Barkhuis, 2012. Catalogue
  • Petra Broomans, Janke Klok (ur.): Travelling Ideas in the Long Nineteenth Century. Groningen: Barkhuis, 2019. Catalogue
  • Katja Mihurko Poniž: Literarna ustvarjalka v očeh drugega: študije o recepciji, literarnih stikih in biografskem diskurzu. Založba Univerze v Novi Gorici: Nova Gorica, 2017. E-version

Assessment

Oral contribution at the seminar, (30%) Encyclopedic article published on Slovenian Wikipedia (50%) active participation in lectures and seminars (20%).

Lecturer's references

Prof. dr. Katja Mihurko Poniž, is the author of five scientific monographs (Boldly Different: Zofka Kveder and Images of Femininity; Labyrinths of Love in Slovene Literature from Romance to World War II; Eve's Daughters: Constructing Femininity in Slovene Public Discourse 1848-1902; Written with her pen: Breaks of Early Slovene Writers with the Paradigm of National Literature; Literary Creator in the Eyes of the Other: Studies on Reception, Literary Contacts and Biographical Discourse) and Zofka Kveder, editor of the Collected Works (five volumes have been published so far). She is active in international research projects, she is the head of the Women Writers in History working group at the pan-European digital humanities network DARIAH and the head of the CEEPUS network of Women Writers in History. Her research areas are: feminist literary studies, gender studies, digital humanities, Slovene drama, Slovene-German literary contacts and the history of the Slovene women's movement.

MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja. Literary journey from north to south: the reception of Nordic women writers, their books and ideas in the Slovenian literary system. Nora, ISSN 0803-8740, 2019, vol. 27, iss. 1, str. 1–13, doi: 10.1080/08038740.2018.1551245.

MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja. Der Bruch mit der literarischen Tradition: Weibliche Identitätskonzepte in Zofka Kveders multikulturellem Œuvre. Germanoslavica, ISSN 1210-9029, 2016, jg. 27, nr. 2, str. 37–64.

MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja, PARENTE-ČAPKOVÁ, Viola. The new women from the margins. Interlitteraria, ISSN 1406-0701, 2015, vol. 20, no. 2, str. 184–198, doi: 10.12697/IL.2015.20.2.15.

MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja. Gendering the capital: Zofka Kveder's rhetorical construction of women's position in the urban topography. Neohelicon : acta Comparationis litterarum universarum, ISSN 0324-4652, 2014, vol. 41, no. 1, str. 63–76, doi: 10.1007/s11059-013-0221-x.

MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja. Ambiguous views on femininity in the writings of two "New Women" in the fin de siècle: Zofka Kveder's inspirational encounters with Laura Marholm's modern women. V: MIHURKO PONIŽ, Katja (ur.). Reception of foreign women writers in the Slovenian literary system of the long 19th century. Nova Gorica: University of Nova Gorica Press. 2017, str. 37–71. http://www.ung.si/media/storage/cms/attachments/2017/04/03/14/57/48/HERA.pdf.