Anna Mostowska – preromantyczna protofeministka

Abstract

Anna Mostowska is part of the group of lesser-known, even forgotten, Polish women writers, whose works were written during the first decade of the 19th century. Her biography deserves widespread attention and to be recalled, as she was a pre-romantic protofeminist far ahead of her time. She was a nonconformist, an independent woman, who in 1804, after divorcing her second husband, Tadeusz Mostowski, decided to become financially independent and start writing. In her time, she was one of the very few women scholars and writers, that was also a frequent guest in artistic circles. Moreover, she did not fulfill the cultural and social roles assigned to women of that time, as she was an erudite, patron of the arts, painter, writer and translator.