The Muslim Woman in Jelena J. Dimitrijević’s Travelogue “Seven Seas аnd Tri Oceans“ [Sedam mora i tri okeana]

Abstract

There are two major literary and life preoccupations of Jelena J. Dimitrijević: East and Woman. What is typical for the first Serbian world traveler, ever since her stay in newly liberated Niš, trips to Thessaloniki and America, through visits to Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, and to India, China, and Japan, is her interest in women, in their way of life, customs, and social position. Jelena J. In his literary work, Dimitrijević has the most significant preference for a Muslim woman, who is at the center of her interest both in poetry (the collections К Сунцу за Сунце, У сутон) and even more so in prose: Turkish women from the harem of Niš (Писма из Ниша), Turkish women, "young" and "old," from Thessaloniki (Писма из Солуна and Нове), then Egyptian and Syrian women (Seven seas and three oceans, first book) - from the intelligent and sublime princess Huda Sharavi-Pasha, the unreal Zinaida and Ali Pasha's wife from the palace of Harun al-Rashid, to a poor Cairo flower girl, a young beauty from a Damascus suburb and two ravishing Arab women from the train to Port-Said. Finally, Indian women -- Muslim women who are so different from Hindu women of the Brahmin faith, even though they are both Aryan and Semitic women from Egypt - as Jelena Dimitrijević writes (Seven Seas and Three Oceans, second book).
Jelena J. Dimitrijević observes and describes Muslim women from different parts of the world, with various social statuses, education, and customs. In the first part, the paper provides a detailed overview of earlier texts dealing with the subject to point out the international and intercultural significance of the travelogue Seven Seas and Three Oceans, as well as the development path in Jelena Dimitrijević's complex relationship with Muslim women. Also, it is shown that orientophilia, whose main heroine is always a Muslim woman, has a development line in the multi-decade creation of this author, and its most vital expression is precisely in the travelogues. In this regard, various modern theoretical concepts will be used in the analysis, and the imagological and comparative elements of travel writing will be emphasized. Finally, the work shows a unique view of the world of Jelena J. Dimitrijević in which her nomadic polyglotism, feminism, patriotism, and critical cosmopolitanism express appreciation of differences.