In a contemporary approach to the study of literature, this thesis gives an analysis of female characterization in the works of Josip Kozarac, focusing on the function of the female body in a literary text. Kozarac was the chief literary voice of the region of Slavonia, Croatia, in the 19th century, and in his stories he portrayed some typical female characters of the countryside and the city. In her 1994 work entitled Refiguring Bodies, published in Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism, Elizabeth Grosz played a major role in exploring the presentation of the body in the humanities. A key component in the historical development of philosophy was the idea of linking the male with the mind and the female with the body. Therefore the woman has always remained mysterious, inscrutable, an eternal enigma in philosophy. This is the framework in which Josip Kozarac explores the body of his heroines. Writing on the border between society and culture, he examines various aspects of the body in his female characters, showing that the body is neither a passive nor a non-cultural term. Kozarac certainly focused strongly on the female body and explored it from several aspects. He presented its physical manifestation in the motifs of appearance, pregnancy and motherhood. He emphasizes the influence of social surroundings, traditional culture and religion on the literary fates of his heroines’ bodies. In his ideological characterization Kozarac connects the female body to nature, precisely to the land of Slavonia. Through his depictions of physical experiences of the female body Kozarac also paints a social picture of entire Slavonia, particularly the social roles in various historical and economic conditions. The body of his heroines symbolizes resistance to patriarchal norms and male supremacy; these women violate social and religious norms through their body. In the end we can conclude that the sole purpose of female heroines in the works of Josip Kozarac was love – to love and to be loved. Therefore, in his sympathy for them the author absolves them and gives them an aura of morality.