Return of the prodigal daughter: The portrait of the heroine in the soviet novel Mat' Marija
- 作者：Elina Kahla
- 关键词：Mat' Marija ; Skobcova ; Kuz'mina-Karavaeva ; Mikulina
- 刊名：Russian Literature
- 出版年：2006
- 期刊代码：23_03043479
- 类别：art
- 出版时间：1 January 2006
- 卷：59
- 期：1
- 页码：75-95
- 文件大小：1336 K
摘要
The article explores the portrayal of the poet, intellectual and religious activist Mother Maria Skobcova (Elizaveta Kuz'mina-Karavaeva, 1891–1945) in the Soviet novel Mat' Marija written by Elena Mikulina (1983). In the first part, the genealogical background of the novel is addressed, and how the text can be approached within its genre, the socialist realistic novel. In the second part, the portrait of the heroine is in focus. It is demonstrated that the novelist, paralysed in her work by official literary control, could quote her heroine's, Skobcova's, authentic writings only selectively. In consequence, the novel portrays the heroine as an archetypal “prodigal daughter”, a puppet-like naïve person who repents of her political errors and wishes to “convert”, that is, to be accepted by the Bolsheviks. In this rigorous example of the Soviet mass novel, the heroine is represented as a martyred struggler of the anti-fascist Resistance, but her authentic personality, her oeuvre as well as theological views are systematically ignored. As this essay argues, the novel is no biography. It provides a clichéd portrait which has little in common with the historical person, whose authentic writings and visual art have only recently reached a Russian audience.