Article

Name: The black woman warrior in the “Mirror of Virgins,” a miniature play by Lyubov Stolitsa (1917): gender and race in the cabaret theater

Authors: Veronika B. Zuseva-Özkan

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 considers how the heroic, romanticized, often tragic image of the warrior woman received parodic coverage in the “Mirror of Virgins” (1917), a miniature play by Lyubov Stolitsa. The comic representation of the female warrior in this play is an exceptional instance in the realm of Russian Modernist literature. In addition, to the author’s knowledge, it is the only image of a black female warrior and the only one found in a text written for the cabaret theater. The hypothesis of this paper is that it is in relation to the black heroine and within the framework of the cabaret culture that the comic and degrading representation of the high image occurs. Russian culture had no specific colonial discourse towards black people, typical of England, France, and the United States. However, it has been found that black people were perceived as savages, obeying only natural laws close to primitiveness. Additionally, the review of miniature plays by Potemkin, Agnivtsev, Chuzh-Chuzhenin, and others, including the “One Sheer Nonsense,” a “harlequinade” by Shershenevich, has revealed that cabaret plays characterized by their inevitable parodic perspective exacerbated this perception. Given this background, it is obvious that Stolitsa portrays her black woman, albeit somewhat comically, but with much more reverence than other authors of cabaret plays. Moreover, it is worth noting that all the elements that “diminish” the image of the black heroine are given from the perspective of the caliph, a character who proves himself an object of ridicule.

Keywords: woman warrior, gender, race, cabaret theater, Lyubov Stolitsa

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