ANCESTRESSES AND FEMALE LEGACY IN MARIJANA ČANAK’S FOREMOTHERS

Text topic: Studies

Text author: Маја Седларевић

Using the term “gynocriticism”, coined by Elaine Showalter fifty years ago, and other critical practices which explore the creativity of women, the paper sets out to explore continuity of women’s narratives about experience, change, happiness and misfortune represented in the second book of stories by Marijana Čanak. Her collection of stories, titled Pramatere easily translated as “Foremothers”, delves deep into the lives of several generations of women who fight against the shortcomings of their respective lives, and struggle to keep the legacy of their grandmothers and mothers alive. Marijana Čanak focuses on the aims gynocriticism has defined as the most important, such as the objective to change the male-oriented literary heritage and to focus on the lives of women who have been silenced, marginalized and neglected.