Article

Name: Gender Aspects of Boris Pilnyak’s Prose of the 1920s

Authors: Lyudmila P. Yakimova

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section The Plot, Motive, Genre

Abstract:

The article consecutively examines the gender aspect of the plots of B. Pilnyak’s novel “The Naked Year” (1920), as well as the novels and short stories “Ivan-da-Marya” (the novella was also published under the title “Thistle”), “Mati Syra Zemlya” (“Mother Damp Earth”) (1925), “Combed Time” (1924), “The Old House” (1924), “Mahagony” (1929).

Consistent chronological consideration of Pilnyak’s works of the 1920s leads to the conclusion that the turning point in the plot of these works is the change in the characters’ lifestyle and fate due to the Russian Revolution. Each of the works listed above contains characteristic images, reflecting the transformation that occurred after the revolution in the sphere of relations between men and women. B. Pilnyak was one of the first to create the image of a heroine in a leather jacket and with a revolver. Marriage, family, and children are no longer valuable for these heroines, giving way to immersion in social life. In Pilnyak’s texts we find heroines adopting male traits and claiming the right to social equality with men. Mentioning A. M. Kollontai in the story “Ivan-da-Marya” allows us to draw a parallel between Pilnyak’s heroines and Russian female revolutionaries. The depiction of a critical epoch also determines the abundance of contrasts in the texts: for example, in the novel “The Naked Year” the themes of family despotism and free love are interspersed.

B. Pilnyak’s prose of the 1920s is reviewed in the context of the literature of this time: the novel “Cement” by F. Gladkov (1922–1924), the story “Virineya” by L. Seyfullina (1924), as well as the story by A. Platonov “At the Dawn of Misty Youth” (1938), his story “Fro” (1936) and the novel “Happy Moscow” (1933–1935). B. Lavrenev’s short stories “Forty-First” (1924) and P. Nilin’s “Varya Lugina and Her First Husband” (1936) are also mentioned. Intertextual analysis reveals a number of common gender motifs in these works.

Keywords: B. Pilnyak, plots of Pilnyak’s novels and novellas, gender aspects of the artistic text, intertext, motif

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