This is a story about a Serbian woman writer and traveller born in the 19th century who chose to lead a very different life than the one expected of a woman born and raised in the patriarchal Serbian society of the 19th and the early 20th century. Brave, educated, and self-conscious, this remarkable woman was a poetess, a novelist, and a writer of travelogues, and to this day remains an inspiration. 

Jelena Dimitrijević (1862-1945) was born in Kruševac, a small town in central Serbia. Since she was born into a wealthy family, Jelena was able to get a good education. However, when she was very young, an eye injury forced her to quit school and the doctors even forbade her from reading or writing. Disregarding the doctors’ advice, Jelena continued her education at home with private tutors and she never stopped educating herself her entire life.

After she got married, Jelena and her husband moved to Niš in 1881. Niš had just been liberated from the rule of the Ottoman Empire in 1878 and the town was still filled with Oriental flavours and way of life. Jelena was fascinated with Niš and its residents, especially Muslim women. She managed to get a privileged look into the lives of Muslim women that they led behind harem walls and their well-guarded secrets. In 1897 Jelena published Letters from Niš about Harems (Pisma iz Niša o haremima), the very first prose book in Serbian, written and signed by a female author. While in Niš, Jelena also published her first book of poetry signing it only with her first name. Immediately, rumours started spreading all over Niš about the identity of the poetess and people claimed she was a runaway Turkish girl. Wanting to learn more about the life of Muslim women, Jelena then travelled further east and documented her travels and experiences in the travelogue Letters from Thessaloniki (Pisma iz Soluna) as well as in the novel The New (Nove). Jelena was the youngest member of the Serbian woman society’s Niš branch. She was also a dedicated women’s rights activist and heavily involved in charitable work. 

At the beginning of 20th century Jelena and her husband moved to Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, where she quickly became a prolific writer and a member of Serbian Writer’s Society.  Unfortunately, in 1915, Jelena was widowed when her husband died at the frontlines. 

 

Jelena Dimitrijević was well educated, talented, self-conscious and very bold and in the 19th century patriarchal Serbian society this made her quite unique and very different from the majority of women. She was a polyglot and spoke German, French, Greek, Russian, English and, due to her fascination with the Orient, Turkish as well.

Jelena travelled extensively - before the First World War she visited Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, and from 1919 to 1927, France, Spain, England, and America. Her continued fascination with the Orient led her to explore not only Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon but also India, Japan, and China. Her many travels were mostly funded by Jelena herself.

As a feminist, Jelena was proud to have met Mrs. Hoda Sha’arawi, the founder of Egyptian Feminist Union. As a writer, she had the exciting opportunity to meet Rabindranath Tagore. 

Jelena’s travelogues, Seven Seas and Three Oceans (Sedam mora i tri okeana), Letters from India (Pisma iz Indije), Letters from Misir (Pisma iz Misira), are just a small part of her legacy kept at The National Library of Serbia.

For a long time, Jelena Dimitrijević was forgotten in Serbian history and literature. In 1980s, the interest in her life and writings was revived and she has been since republished, studied and talked about by Serbian students, scholars, feminists, and female writers. In 21st century, the life story of Jelena Dimitrijević still continues to inspire.