Yin Liu, Mikhaylova, M. (2018). Works of the lady owner of the ‘haunted apartment’, or The phenomenon of E. A. Nagrodskaya. Moscow: Common place

Abstract

The review focuses on the monograph co-written by Doctor of Philology Maria Mikhaylova and the Chinese scholar Yin Liu about Evdokia Nagrodskaya and her works. Contemporary critics dismissed her books as pulp fiction. Yet the researchers prove convincingly that Nagrodskaya’s works reveal a meaning deeper than was assumed by her contemporaries. Moreover, the transgender theme explored in Nagrodskaya’s acclaimed novel The Wrath of Dionysus
[ Gnev Dionisa ] remains highly relevant a century upon the book’s first publication. Amongst the mo nograph’s noticeable merits is a detailed overview of modern literary studies devoted to female authors of the early 20th c. Highly commendable is the excellent quality of academic analysis applied to the philoso phical problems and artistic anthropology of the novels The Wrath of Dionysus , The Bronze Door [ U bronzovoy dveri ], and Evil Spirits [ Zlye dukhi].