The aim of the research activity conducted by Nikica Mihaljević, Full Professor, and Brian D. Willems, Full Professor, is to analyse female characters in the works of Croatian women writers, with particular emphasis on their connection to the Mediterranean within a spatial and historical context. The relevance of this research lies in the fact that the representation of women in literature has long been neglected, and women as authors received less scholarly attention than male writers until the twentieth century. Similarly, relatively little attention was devoted to the analysis of female characters, whose importance within literary discourse has become increasingly prominent in recent decades. Using the concept of the “spatial turn” as a theoretical framework, the study examines the influence of the geographical, cultural, and social boundaries of the Mediterranean on the formation of the identities of female characters in literature, as well as the reciprocal relationship between space and character. The research focuses on analysing the role of Mediterranean cities and spaces in the formation of these identities, comparing real and fictional boundaries. The objective is to explain how space shapes the dynamics of the development and reception of female characters, as well as their visibility within literary discourse. Furthermore, the study aims to redefine national and regional identity through a female perspective, with particular emphasis on the socio-historical context of Dalmatia and Croatia. The research corpus consists of texts from twentieth-century Croatian literature as well as works by contemporary authors, and the research activities will be carried out in archives and libraries in Croatia and abroad.
