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Mothers Who Live: Gender Subversion And Resilience In Leoš Janáček’S Jenůfa, Megan Lynne Whiteman
Mothers Who Live: Gender Subversion And Resilience In Leoš Janáček’S Jenůfa, Megan Lynne Whiteman
Masters Theses
Leoš Janáček’s opera Jenůfa, which premiered in 1904, takes place in a secluded Moravian village and details the story of two women, Jenůfa and Kostelnička. They are intertwined through an act of infanticide, family dynamics, and gender expectations. Recognized as the first Czech naturalist dramatist, Gabriela Preissová wrote the Czech realist play, Její pastorkyňa [Her Stepdaughter] (1890), which provided prose for the opera. Tragedies often occur in Jenůfa due to women defying social norms and the problems that arise as a result of their actions. The gender transgressions of Jenůfa and Kostelnička—actions that deviate from gender expectations …