Within the research project Knjiženstvo – Theory and History of Women’s Writing in Serbian until 1915, sponsored by the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science, and Technological Development, the principal investigator Professor Biljana Dojčinović edited a renewed publication of Jelena Dimitrijević’s (1862-1945) travelogue Sedam mora i tri okeama: putem oko sveta [Seven Seas and Three Oceans: Travelling around the Globe], which Laguna published in 2016 in Serbian. Although little known to a wider audience, author Jelena Dimitrijević, labelled on the cover as ‘the first Serbian female world traveller’, is a fascinating figure, whose writings about – in many respects still exotic – landscapes and civilizations of the Middle East are worthy of closer consideration, insofar as they are a testimony to a turbulent period in national histories of the people inhabiting these ancient regions.
The book opens with Biljana Dojčinović’s preface “‘Viloslovka’ putem oko sveta” [‘Fairy Whisperer’ Travelling around the Globe], which not only places the text in its cultural and historical context, but analyses it, primarily in the light of feminist literary theory, thereby revealing some of the text’s complexities to the prospective readers. With a note that “only the necessary linguistic adaptations have been made to match contemporary orthography” (p. 442), which refers to punctuation interventions, this edition aims to preserve “the flavour of the time from which the author speaks to us” (p. 442). A glossary of little known words (pp. 443-45) is provided at the end of the book; it contains sixty entries that specify the etymology as well as the meaning of the given words.
Written in the form of an epistolary diary, this travelogue is characterized by a clear and concise style. Thematically, the book is divided into three sections, entitled “From Genoa to Alexandria”, “Across the Land of the Pharaohs”, and “In the Holy Land and Syria” respectively. The travelogue opens with an entry written on 17th November 1926 in Genoa, some hours before Jelena Dimitrijević set off on her journey “around the world”. After having toured the territories that nowadays belong to Egypt, where she visited Alexandria, Cairo, and Luxor, among other places, she travelled further, through the Suez Canal to the so-called Holy Land. Once there, she dedicated much attention to Jerusalem and nearby sites; the travelogue closes with chapters on Damascus, Beirut, and Haifa respectively. Underpinned with carefully selected pieces of information of historical, geographical, and ethnographical kind, as well as with various anecdotes and comparisons, this travelogue offers much more than mere descriptions. Longing for the unknown fills every page of the book, giving it a distinct lyrical tone. A cosmopolitan spirit of Jelena Dimitrijević is reflected in her multilingual expression: the text abounds in multilingual insertions, most notably in English and French, but also in the languages of local communities.
What makes this travelogue truly stand out from the plethora of similar texts is the author’s critical commentary on different aspects of the societies that she encounters, including their customs, tradition, mythology, religion, politics, education, as well as social and gender differences. A feminist aspect, which has captured close academic attention in previous decades, is evident from the very first chapter, where Jelena Dimitrijević dedicates her book to no one else but to women. Indeed, the whole travelogue is interspersed with contemplations of the rather inequitable status of women in different parts of the world, from ancient until modern times. It is through a feminist perspective, which is present, inter alia, in the descriptions of the localities and apparently harmless local practices, that the author points towards subtle mechanisms of women’s oppression. In this light, of particular interest are numerous parallels that Jelena Dimitrijević draws between at that time recently modernized Turkey and still strictly patriarchal Egypt. A whole chapter is dedicated to the author’s meeting with Huda Sha’arawi, prominent Egyptian feminist at the time, who advocated the right to vote for women in this country.
It is interesting that the author sets off on her journey “around the world” shortly after recovering from a serious illness, which almost impaired her eyesight. For this reason, Jelena Dimitrijević admires her own courage not only to start reading again but to start writing – and not just about anything, but about distant places, to which she travels on her own – after this prolonged period of “dejectedness”, as she calls it, when she was afraid even to look at a piece of paper, for fear of being unable to read. What is more, she admires her transformation from a timid and norm-burdened person, who could not even travel on her own “from Niš to Aleksinac, let alone further” (p. 53) in her youth, into a brave and daring traveller who fears no illness or misfortune that could befall her in a foreign land. Her own experience of travelling as “a woman of her age” (p. 50) sets a basis for the examination of customary beliefs and for the questioning of stereotypes common in her society, where “older lot” dare not travel on their own, for fear of “dying away from their home town” (p. 48). A typical Balkan mindset is often contrasted with the views and experiences of those from other countries, especially England and the US: similarly to the author herself, they take little notice of obstacles imposed by their advanced age or by foreign countries and languages.
Adventures of Jelena Dimitrijević on this impressive journey, however, do not end in Haifa; she further travels to the Far East, visiting India, China, Japan, to name but a few. While I write this review, the researchers involved in the Knjiženstvo project are working on deciphering the second part of the previously unpublished manuscript Sedam mora i tri okeana: putem oko sveta [Seven Seas and Three Oceans: Travelling around the Globe], in which the author carefully documented her experiences and impressions from the latter half of the journey.
Even though widening and redefining a national canon is an incredibly slow process, hopes remain that the publication of the reviewed travelogue, as well as of its sequel, will manage to excite attention of a wider audience to Jelena Dimitrijević’s oeuvre, and that, after some ninety years, her books will finally be read outside the confines of academia. A liberal and a fighter not just for women’s rights but for the rights of various oppressed groups, her works gave voice to many of those dwelling on the margins. It seems the time has come for us to give Jelena Dimitrijević back her own voice, which has been unfairly silenced, in an odd mixture of political and ideological reasons.