Czechoslovak Stories/Božena Víková-Kunětická
BOŽENA VÍKOVÁ-KUNĚTICKÁ
(Born 1863 in Pardubice.)
Bozena Vikova, the wife of J. Vik, an official in one of the large sugar factories of Czechoslovakia, adopted as a pen-name “Kunětická,” after the place where she spent her childhood.
The discrimination practised against womankind in the social and economic world forms the basic idea of many of her stories and novels. Her introduction to literature was, however, in sketches of the less vital but fully as painful, sordid, little tragedies of a woman’s life of which “Spiritless,” which follows, is an example. Mrs. Víková-Kunětická has eight collections of short stories to her credit and six longer romances—“Vdova po Chirurgovi” (The Surgeon’s Widow), “Minulost” (The Past); and “Justýna Holdanova” and “Medřická,” named for their chief characters; “Vzpoura” (Revolt) and “Pán” (The Master).
She stands as the champion of women for the preservation of their individuality against total submersion in the being of their husbands and she is often accused of extreme feminism. She never relinquishes for a moment her demand for equal personal purity in the parties to a marriage contract.
As a playwright her comedies, “Sběratelka Starožitností” (The Collector of Curiosities), “Cop” (The Braid), “Neznámá Pevnina” (Unknown Territory) and “Přítěž” (Ballast), won favor and are frequently produced. Her dramas, “V Jařmu” (In the Yoke), “Holčička" (The Little Girl) and “V Bludiští” (In a Maze), are less successful as dramas than as feminist propaganda.
Mrs. Víková-Kunětická was honored by her countrymen by election to the Bohemian Parliament some ten years ago. The Austrian government with its customary indifference to all progressive ideas, under one pretext or another refused her permission to take her seat in the assembly. Her election at that time was the first example in central Europe of similar recognition for a woman. In the present congress of the Czechoslovak Republic there are twelve women representatives.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1948, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 75 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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