Fragments of autobiography: The concept of “flickering compassion” in Portraits of Women by Ksenija Atanasijević
In our discussion we will explore how Ksenija Atanasijević, while writing about the poets and philosophers of ancient Greece, but also about Saint Teresa of Avila and George Sand, expressed her own understanding of the importance of women's scientific and artistic creativity, and also...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Institute of Ethnography, SASA, Belgrade
2020-01-01
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| Series: | Glasnik Etnografskog Instituta SANU |
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| Online Access: | http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0350-0861/2020/0350-08612002353B.pdf |
| Summary: | In our discussion we will explore how Ksenija Atanasijević, while writing
about the poets and philosophers of ancient Greece, but also about Saint
Teresa of Avila and George Sand, expressed her own understanding of the
importance of women's scientific and artistic creativity, and also their
emancipation. By choice of women she will write about, as well as emphasis
on certain qualities of their personalities and their work, and the
philosophical concepts she supported, Ksenija Atanasijević simultaneously
created her implicit imaginary philosophical "I" in Portraits of Women.
Therefore, the most precise genre definition of Portraits of Women would be
fragments of flickering compassion towards the personalities she is
describing, and compassion can be defined as a key characteristic of her
entire oeuvre and life - empathy was the basis of Ksenija Atanasijevic's
ethical philosophy and her social, pacifist and feminist engagement and at
the same time it was in her opinion the most important value of human life.
With this choice, Ksenija Atanasijević also anticipated the stance of
contemporary feminism on the necessity of creating a female canon for
shaping a women's personal and creative identity. |
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| ISSN: | 0350-0861 2334-8259 |