Anna’s war. Russian existentialism and gothic without vampires in ruffled collars in Anna Chukhlebova’s prose

Abstract

The article discusses the work of Anna Chukhlebova, a young prose writer, shortlisted nominee for the 2022 Lyceum award. In focus of this study are her collection of short stories An Easy Way to Quit Satanism [Lyogkiy sposob zavyazat s satanizmom] (2022) and the novel Widow [Vdovushka] (2024). Efremova describes Chukhlebova’s achievement as a definitive summary of the ‘new thirty-year-olds’ prose and the entire metamodernist poetics: her subjects include a gothic novel without vampire clichés; the apocryphal Mother of God’s walk through torment in the world deprived of any belief in mothers of god; rural magic; a contemporary urban romance; and Russian existentialism. In addition, the critic lists such distinguishing features of Chukhlebova’s prose as its carnivalesque quality, mock psychologism, deliberate avoidance of typification, and colourfully pleonastic language characteristic of Southern Russia. The critic argues that the young writer abhors discrimination guided by societal norms — anything that enforces generalization and pigeonholing of individuals. Chukhlebova’s primary concern as a writer is to discover the hero’s true self, their living soul, and reveal it to the reader.