Article

Name: Russian ibsenism and the “women’s question”: the heroines of H. Ibsen in the critical and literary reception of N. M. Minsky and D. S. Merezhkovsky

Authors: Andreichuk K. R.

A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract:

The paper shows that the new ideal of the relationship between men and woman, discussed in Russia at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, was inspired by H. Ibsen although Russian critics refused to see the “great Norwegian” as a supporter of the practical side of the women’s movement. The Silver Age identified Ibsen’s heroines as examples of two opposing ideals of femininity: “eternally feminine” meekness on the one hand, and feminine independence and courage to violate social norms on the other. Russian authors often credited their own ideas to Ibsen, justifying their aesthetic-philosophical conceptions in terms of his work. This study considers the dilemma of perception of Ibsen's heroines as symbols and subjects of free will. The Russian reception of H. Ibsen’s female images is analyzed in the works of E. A. Koltonovskaya, G. V. Plekhanov, A. V. Lunacharsky, Z. N. Gippius, A. A. Blok, L. N. Andreev, I. F. Annensky, V. V. Rozanov and papers of N. M. Minsky and D. S. Merezhkovsky. K. R. Andreichuk compares the plays “Hedda Gabler” by H. Ibsen and “Alma” by N. M. Minsky, for the first time pointing out the connection between the dramas “The Thunderstorm Is Over” by D. S. Merezhkovsky and “A Doll’s House” by H. Ibsen.

Keywords: female images, ibsenism, feminism, H. Ibsen, Hedda Gabler, A Dol`s House (Nora), D. S. Merezhkovsky, The Thunderstorm Is Over, N. M. Minsky, Alma

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