Description
Following publication of Nikolai Pirogov’s influential essay ‘Вопросы жизни' in 1856, the so-called ‘woman question’ became the focus of considerable debate in Russian society. Literary reflections on questions related to women’s role within the family and their access to education and economic activity have long been recognised. However, the contribution made to this discussion by works from the popular, but marginalised, genre of crime fiction has not yet been considered in any depth. While crime fiction authored by men in the late imperial era in Russia provides one interesting lens through which to consider aspects of the ‘woman question’, this paper turns its attention to crime fiction written by women during this same period. It will argue that female-authored, late nineteenth-century crime fiction constitutes particularly fertile ground for an examination of the depiction of the marginalised and disenfranchised position of women within the institutions of family and marriage. It will open with discussion of two novels by Aleksandra Sokolova, Спетая песня (1892) and Из-за могилы (1891), and their illustration of the violent consequences stemming from a woman’s subjugation within a patriarchal family desperate to maintain its social status. Из-за могилы is a highly unusual work in terms of the extreme violence depicted as being perpetrated by a female character as a result of her social isolation and sexual exploitation in a male-dominated context. Sokolova’s 1890 novel Без следа and Kapitolina Nazar’eva’s 1884 novel В когтях нищеты will then form the basis of an examination of the representation of a lack of female agency within marriage. Consideration will be given throughout to the manner in which diegetic structure and narrative device underscore the examination of the position and fate of women in these texts. The paper will conclude with a consideration of how works of female-authored crime fiction from the late imperial era add nuance to existing considerations of the ‘woman question’ in more canonical works of Russophone literature.| Period | 28 May 2024 |
|---|---|
| Held at | Association of Women in Slavic Studies, United States, Massachusetts |
| Degree of Recognition | International |