Růžena Svobodová

Růžena Svobodová (July 10, 1868 — January 1, 1920), born Růžena Čápová, was a Czech writer.

Růžena Svobodová, from a 1905 publication.
Mikulovice pamětní desky; plaque commemorating Růžena Svobodová and artist Emanuel Krescenc Liška, both from Mikulovice
Růžena Čápová with her future husband, in 1890

Early life

Růžena Čápová was born in Mikulovice, a small town in southern Moravia. Her family moved to Prague when she was a child. When she was 12, her father died, and the surviving widow and children moved out of the city, but Růžena was sent to schools in Prague.[1]

Career

Růžena Svobodová wrote short stories and novels, often focused on female characters' lives, including Na písčité půdě (On the Sandy Soil, 1895), Ztroskotáno (Wrecked, 1896), Přetížený klas (Overloaded Ear, 1896), Zamotaná vlákna (Wrapped Fibers, 1899), Milenky (1902), Pěšinkami srdce (The Heart Walks, 1902), Plameny a plaménky (Flames and Cleanses, 1905), Marné lásky (Merciful Love, 1906), Černí myslivci (Black Foresters, 1908), Posvátné jaro (Sacred Spring, 1912), Po svatební hostině (The Wedding Feast, 1916), Hrdinné a bezmocné dětství (Heroes and Helpless Childhood, 1920) and Ráj (Paradise, 1920). She is described by one scholar as "one of the creators of modern Czech prose."[2] Another scholar described her as "a writer of powerful feminist short fiction" who later became "a sentimentalizing, emptily philosophizing novelist, crushing her natural sensualism under buckets of pretty flowers."[3]

She was founder of a women's magazine, Zvěstování (Annunciation) in 1919, and edited another magazine, Lipa (1918-1919), focused on arts and culture. She also hosted a literary salon, attracting artists as well as writers, including actress Hana Kvapilová, Božena Benešová, Marie Pujmanová, Antonín Sova, and Vilém Mrštík.

During World War I she signed the Manifesto of Czech writers, and was active in organizing the charity Czech Heart, which provided food relief and rural foster homes for the children of Prague.[1][4]

Her book Černí myslivci was adapted for film in 1945.

Personal life

Růžena Čápová married František Xaver Svoboda, a poet and bank official. She also had a long relationship with František Xaver Šalda, concurrent with her marriage (in fact, Šalda introduced her to Svoboda).[1] She died from heart trouble in 1920, aged 51 years, in Prague. Her remains were interred in Slavín (Prague), a tomb for Czech notables.

References
  1. Veronika Kábrtová, "Rozervaná Růžena Svobodová: Život mezi dvěma muži" Vlasta.cz (October 9, 2015).
  2. Helena Forsas-Scott, Textual Liberation (Routledge Revivals): European Feminist Writing in the Twentieth Century (Routledge 2014): 122. ISBN 9781317578147
  3. Robert B. Pysent, "Czech Feminist Anti-Semitism: The Case of Božena Benešová" in Marcel Cornis-Pope, John Neubauer, eds., History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe: Types and Stereotypes (John Benjamins Publishing 2010): 355. ISBN 9789027234582
  4. "Usilovala o emancipaci žen a odmítala intimní lásku. Osudové ženy: Růžena Svobodová" Dvojka (December 22, 2017).
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