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Female images in Fet’s poems edited by Turgenev
https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2024-5-90-105
Abstract
The article sets out to reconstruct Turgenev’s objective in revising a collection of Fet’s poems to be published in 1856. 19th-c. censorship restricted the scope of literature approved for women’s reading, although the restrictions were circumvented where possible. Turgenev took an interest in literature produced by contemporary female authors, introduced characters of women writers and poets in his books, and may have tried to influence female audiences’ reading trends. Preparing the 1856 collection, Turgenev revised its structure compared to the 1850 edition, with the effect of emphasizing female characters and the theme of a woman’s feelings and love. Further changes concerned descriptions of women’s love-induced desires. Turgenev edited out their first-person expression, as well as explicit depictions of a woman’s body; at the same time, he kept first-person descriptions of divination by a lyrical heroine, as well as accounts of love and lovers’ assignations through the eyes of a male lyrical hero. However, such a revision of female images, with their subjectivity and sensuousness, clashed with Fet’s own objective stated in the poem ‘The Muse’ and earlier editions of his poems.
About the Author
K. V. Sarycheva
Russian State University for the Humanities; Vladimir Dahl State Museum of the History of Russian Literature
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Kristina V. Sarycheva - Candidate of Philology
6 Miusskaya Sq., Moscow, 125047
15/1 Zubovsky Blvd., Moscow, 119021
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Review
For citations:
Sarycheva K.V. Female images in Fet’s poems edited by Turgenev. Voprosy literatury. 2024;(5):90-105. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2024-5-90-105
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