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389 PAJK, Pavlina (born Doljak) (1854–1901) Slovenian poet, author and pioneer of Slovenian ‘literary feminism.’ Pavlina Doljak was born on 9 April 1854 in Pavia (Italy), where her father Josip Doljak (from Grgar near Gorizia) was a judge and (after 1848) a member of the Viennese Parliament. Her mother, Pavlina Milharčič, was the daughter of a school inspector and teacher from Gorizia who prior to her marriage had been a lady-in-waiting. She died in 1857 in Milano , following the birth of her fourth child, a daughter called Teodolina. Two years later, Josip Doljak, his son Teodor and three daughters Pavlina, Henrieta, and Teodolina (1857–?), moved to Trieste, where Josip died in 1861. After the death of Josip Doljak, his brother Matija Doljak assumed responsibility for the children and their education. He was a landowner, a member of the provincial assembly and the Mayor of Solkan (near Gorizia). He was also the founder of the Slovene reading society in Gorizia and one of the initiators of the Slovene national movement in the Gorizia region. At the age of eleven, after finishing the Ursuline boarding school in Gorizia, Pavlina took over the housework in her uncle's house, where she met prominent Slovene politicians and writers who aroused her interest in art and culture. Her education and artistic endeavors were further influenced by her friendship with Karel Lavrič, an attorney-at-law. A widely read person and nationalist, Lavrič became her mentor, encouraging her to read Slovene poetry and prose. Pavlina also widened her horizons by reading German and Italian classics. In 1873, her brother Teodor finished his law studies and received employment at the Gorizia court of justice. Pavlina and her sisters moved in with him and she took care of the housework. Teodor Doljak saw his sister’s cultural activities as dangerous since, from the 1870s onwards, rivalry between the Italian and Slovene national camps in Gorizia was increasing in severity. Pavlina Doljak had to publish her first writings anonymously. On 19 June 1872, she published her first short novel Prva ljubezen (First love) in the Slovene gazette Soča (Isonzo—the name of a river). Three months later, she published the article “Ženska v družini” (Woman in the family ). In these early works she emphasized female sensitivity and criticized the restrictions on women’s freedom in patriarchal society. 390 In writing for the literary gazette Zora (Dawn), edited in Maribor by Janko Pajk, Pavlina Doljak’s literary creativity was released, turning towards romantic idealism. In Zora she published her first poems (1874) and the autobiographical prose “Odlomki iz ženskega dnevnika” (Excerpts from a woman’s diary, 1876), as well as biographical notes on the contemporary French writer George Sand. In 1877, Zora published her “Ženska pisma prijatelju” (A woman’s letters to a friend) as a feuilleton. In addition to her literary working relationship with Janko Pajk, the two developed a private friendship as well. They were married on 26 February 1876, one year after the death of Janko Pajk’s first wife, Marija Wellner. In December 1876, their first son Milan was born. Janko’s daughter from his first marriage was also part of the family. After their marriage, the couple lived in Maribor, where Janko had a good reputation as a successful editor and publisher and Pavlina was known as a promising artist, coeditor of Zora and a supporter of women’s emancipation. But in the politically conservative and narrow-minded bourgeois atmosphere of Maribor, their public activities soon became the object of public disapproval. When Zora published “Razgovori” (Conversations ) with Pavlina, the reproach became worse. The relatives of Janko’s first wife withdrew most of the financial support that his deceased wife had left him, thereby forcing him to give up editing the gazette. The end of her husband’s editing and publishing career changed Pavlina’s life as well. When, in 1877, her husband had to accept state employment and move to Reid, a period of isolation and increased amount of housework began for Pavlina, continuing even after she followed her husband to a new placement in Grätz, later to Brno. In Grätz, she gave birth to a daughter (1878) who died soon afterwards. In Brno their second son, Božidar, was born. Even during these hard times, Pavlina did not give up writing and kept publishing in Slovene literary gazettes, mostly prose. In 1878, she published a book of poems, Pesmi (Poems). When her husband was transferred...

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