The meeting of two women: Rosa Montero & Maria Skłodowska-Curie

Abstract

The idea of the article is to describe the relationship between the journalist and writer Rosa Montero and Maria Skłodowska-Curie that was aroused as an effect of the work on the explorer’s diary. Montero was supposed to create a prologue to Maria’s diary written after her husband’s tragic death, but the text con-verted into a book. La ridícula idea de no volver a verte is an example of the combination of journalism and literature as an experiment; it takes the form of an intertextual dialogue between the transmitters (Rosa, Maria) and the recipient (Rosa who is reading Maria’s diary, the reader that is reading Rosa’s and Maria’s texts). In the stormy life of Skłodowska-Curie, Rosa finds elements binding her own experiences as well as those of other women. By introducing highlights in the form of hashtags, she pays attention to the universal problems of women: she sees that there are many aspects that bound not only Polish and Spanish women, but all the representatives of that sex living in a world dominated by men. She shows, step by step, the efforts of the Polish explorer, underlying at the same time, her emotionality and the capacity of manipulating the word. Rosa proves that words are the element that makes possible the interaction between her, Maria, and the reader, who is forced to reflect and cannot stay indifferent to the message directed to him. Montero also shows the way in which words permit us to adjust to the pain and suffering after a loss of a loved one, and find inner peace.