“Modern Women” Writing About the “Modern World”: Women’s Journalistic Contributions to the Prague Liberal Press (1918–1939)

• Applicant: Dr. Jana Marková
• Subject Area: European and American Literary and Cultural Studies
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 561367783

Rapidly increasing production of mass-circulation newspapers and advances in the emancipation of women gave rise to a new social phenomenon in Europe in the early 20th century: women writing for general newspapers and magazines that were not specifically for women. However, as their work for the press generally lacked the same volume and continuity as the careers of male journalists, the work of these women journalists often went unnoticed by media and literary history. This project examines the writings of women authors who published in various liberal periodicals in Prague during the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918-1939). A primary focus of this research investigates which discursive self-positionings are characteristic of these authors. The hypothesis is that, despite the diversity of their agendas and individual writing styles, the women journalists in the liberal press performed a similar role: They conveyed how “modern women” imagined a “modern world” and conducted themselves in this world. In doing so, these women journalists engaged thematically in the then-flourishing discourse on modernity. However, as the authorial voices in their writings were clearly women, it was logical to interpret these works as contributions to the discourse distinctly by women, and, in some cases, as texts primarily targeting a female readership. By analyzing the discursive activities of women authors in the media landscape of the Prague liberal press, the project pursues three objectives. Based on the analysis of the journalistic texts, conclusions are drawn about the expectations and constraints that women authors faced in their work for the press. The writing opportunities granted to women are viewed as indicators of the emancipation of women. Second, the project contributes to research into female liberal representations of modernity. As such, it sheds light on cultural concepts, some of which still have a normative effect today. Third, the project focuses on the writing styles used in features and analyzes their defining characteristics, including the staging of subjectivity and spontaneity or the use of humor as a means of persuasion. Comparative perspectives on other segments of the press (communist and conservative press) and the work of women journalists in other countries (above all in Germany and Austria) complement the focus on liberal periodicals and the city of Prague as a publishing location. The inclusion of both Czech- and German-speaking women journalists from Prague is designed to avoid a narrow national focus. The examination of both the majority and minority press shows how the structural characteristics of the latter affected women’s journalism.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants