Jagoda Truhelka – poetika na margini

Jagoda Truhelka – poetika na margini by Katarina Ivon reassesses a writer best known for children’s literature. Combining literary analysis, biography and cultural history, it reveals the breadth of Truhelka’s writing and public engagement at the turn of the twentieth century.

The study examines women’s experience, girls’ education and the possibilities of independent action in a society that restricted women’s public roles. Truhelka’s teaching and literary work are considered together, highlighting the tensions between emancipation, traditional values and expectations of marriage and motherhood.

Representations of childhood are explored alongside the religious, national and political convictions informing her work. Her experience of the First World War and the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy provides a context for understanding her changing views and subsequent reception.

Why does a writer become marginalised, and what disappears from the accepted account of her career? Ivon addresses these questions through texts and historical circumstances, restoring Truhelka to discussions of Croatian literature, women’s cultural history and the influence of ideology on the literary canon.