I propose to present a paper on the representations of heterosexual masculinity and desire in the works of Viktorija Tokareva and Tat'jana Tolstaja. Following the general trend towards "gynocritics," or the analysis of works by women, as opposed to feminist reinterpretation of texts by male authors, my paper will contribute to the understanding of female erotic desire and female interpretations of men from the point of view of female protagonists in female-authored texts. Most feminist or gender critiques of Russian literature have until now dealt with the image of women in literature but just as important to gender studies is the image of ideal masculinity from a female protagonist's perspective. This perspective, coming from "second-class citizens," or those speaking from the margins within the Russian patriarchal culture, may reveal not only "what women really want" (or at least fictional women) but also 1) how the female protagonists view themselves in relation to men, 2) the extent to which mass culture influences the female protagonists' fantasies of an ideal man, and 3) whether or not the female protagonists (and/or the authors) may be considered sexist.
One of the goals of this study is to explore a heretofore underresearched topic within the feminist and gender framework in Slavics, namely, heterosexual masculinity. As Helena Eriksson points out in Husbands, Lovers, and Dreamlovers: Masculinity and Female Desire in Women's Novels of the 1970s (1997), a work of criticism devoted to American women's literature, the majority of masculinity studies within literary and cultural criticism has focused on homosexuality. I use a feminist framework to examine heterosexual masculinityãfrom the female perspective.