Slot: 30A-5 Dec.
30, 8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Panel: Women in Current Russian Culture
Chair: Helena Goscilo, University of Pittsburgh
Title: Humor, Crime, and Punishment: Dar′ia Dontsova and the post-Soviet Ironic
Detektiv
Author: Olga Mesropova, Iowa State University
My paper focuses on tropes, intertextual
links, cultural myths, and critical responses to the recently-emerged genre of ironicheskii
detektiv (ironic
detective fiction). I will focus
particularly on works written by one of the most prolific Russian writers of
the new millennium, Dar′ia
Dontsova. Dontsova began her
publishing career with the EKSMO press in 1999 and, in less than five years,
produced over 60 detective best-sellers with a multi-million total print
run. Although received with
skepticism by many Russian critics, her books have garnered high rankings on
Russian bestseller lists, at times besting such well-established rivals as
Alexandra Marinina and Boris Akunin.
Dontsova’s detektivy
have received numerous Russian literary prizes and recently have been adapted
to Russian prime-time television shows.
I begin my paper with a brief discussion of the role that serialized
detective fiction plays in contemporary Russian cultural landscape, while
addressing the following issues: (1) Do today’s Russian women’s detective
novels represent a consciously feminist attempt to expand the genre’s
conventions? (2) Do women detective writers change or challenge the
restrictions of the detective formula?
My paper argues
that, while navigating a mixture of signs from Russia’s communist past and
nascent capitalist present, Dontsova’s detective world merges and harmonizes
two seemingly clashing cultural discourses. On the one hand, akin to the chernukha of glasnost’ and the early post-Soviet
period, ironic detective fiction abounds in dark depictions of Russian byt (thereby offering a plethora of
intertextual links to the so-called literatura byta).
On the other hand, firmly grounded in the realia of Vladimir Putin’s
Russia, these detective narratives offer their readers an authoritative
master-narrative of the “culture of abundance” that advocates enjoyment of the
present moment, self-fulfillment, and “New Russian” conspicuous
consumption. While negotiating
these two conflicting worlds, Dontsova frames her detective narratives within
the paradigms of the fairy-tale, filled with simple values, “positive
identifications,” optimism, and pervasive didacticism. I contend that – by
juxtaposing dramatic life situations (such as murder and kidnapping) with
family chronicles, slapstick humor, and advice literature – Dontsova constructs
history, crime, and even the concept of “Russianness” in highly popularized and
positive tones, while presenting the new Russian socio-economic situation as an
entirely endurable, humorous adventure.
Title: Working Mothers in Post-Soviet Popular
Culture
Author: Erin Collopy, Texas Tech University
Ever since Natal′ia Baranskaia’s short work Nedelia kak
nedelia brought the
double-burden of full-time employment and domestic responsibilities borne by
Soviet women to the attention of western scholars, much has been written on the
subject. Little has changed regarding essentialist views on gender roles since
the dissolution of the Soviet Union: women are expected to take care of the
children and home, while men are expected to provide material support. Yet, in
reality, full-time employment for most women remains as much a necessity in
today’s Russia as it was during Soviet times, to say nothing of the importance
of women’s professional contributions, nor of women’s desire to participate in
the public sphere.
Works of popular
culture, such as the detective series featuring Anastasia Kamenskaia and the
television series Tainy sledstviia,
provide different views on how women in today’s Russia are negotiating the
difficulties of combining work and family. The first season of Tainy
sledstviia is
particularly interesting in its portrayal of the hardships the main character
Maria Shvetsova faces as she attempts to manage a demanding career and take
care of her family, while her husband is less than supportive. However, these
hardships are apparently solved by Shetsova’s divorce and remarriage in the
following season of the series. Kamenskaia, Aleksandra Marinina’s famous
detective, remains childless, but other characters in the series are not,
including Marinina’s other alter-ego, the writer and prosecutorial
investigator, Tat′iana
Obraztsova, who is fortunate enough to have a devoted family member willing to
care for her infant. My presentation will discuss how these works both
challenge and perpetuate gender expectations in Russian society.
Title: Manifestos and Maternity: The New Amazons
as Writers and Mothers
Author: Elizabeth Skomp, Sewanee: The University
of the South
When the writing group "Novye
amazonki" (New Amazons) formed in 1988, its members immediately
distinguished themselves by claiming to be the only all-female literary
collective in Russian history. The
group's self-positioning in a Russian literary context and the presentation of
their single-gender composition as a crucial feature suggest a concerted effort
to shape the literary scene for women writers current and future.
By drawing from
the "manifestos" of the group in Ne pomniashchaia zla (She Who Bears No Ill, 1990) and the
eponymous Novye amazonki
(1991), I will outline the mission and central concerns of the New Amazons in
their own words. In the process of
self-definition as contemporary word-warriors, the New Amazons underscore their
sine qua non:
motherhood. I will explore the
links between these women writers and motherhood and examine the maternal
ambivalence revealed in several of the texts included in the aforementioned
volumes. Nina Gorlanova’s
“Istoriia ozera Veselogo” (The Story of Lake Cheerful) and Svetlana Vasilenko’s
Shamara exemplify
anxieties about reproduction and biological determinism, while Tat′iana Tolstaia’s “Noch′” (Night) and Marina Vishnevetskaia’s Nachalo (Beginning) respectively exaggerate and
literally diminish the mother-role; the destabilization of maternity mirrors
uncertainty about impending sociopolitical transitions in the twilight of
Soviet rule. Examining the group
and its short trajectory against the backdrop of Russian literary criticism
(Pavel Basinskii, Oleg Dark, Marina Abasheva et al.), I will situate the
experience of the New Amazons both in the context of Russian women’s writing
and within the landscape of late Soviet and post-Soviet literature.