Od pariaski do Mesjaszki. Utopijna biografia Flory Tristan

Szumlewicz, Katarzyna

Od pariaski do Mesjaszki. Utopijna biografia Flory Tristan

Abstract

Szumlewicz explores the life and work of Flora Tristan (1803-1844), a Franco-Peruvian writer and social activist. Tristan’s father belonged to the Peruvian aristocracy, but she live d in poverty because, according to French law, she was not entitled to her inheritance. She married early and had three children before leaving her violent husband. Again, the laws were against her, denying her child custody as well as the right to divorce. Tristan travelled to Peru hoping her relatives would help her. She described her journey, as well as the situation of a woman who cannot divorce, in Peregrinations of a Pariah. Next she travelled to England, where she developed her own version of Utopian Socialism emphasising the advancement of women. Tristan presented herself as “the mother of workers” and a “Messiah”. She died at the age of 41 as a result of a gun-shot wound inflicted by her husband six years earlier.