One woman's theme and variations: The prose of Lyudmila Petrushevskaya.

Abstract

The present work is dedicated to an investigation of the work of the contemporary Russian writer and playwright Lyudmila Petrushevskaya. Lyudmila Petrushevskaya belongs to a new generation of women writers whose works are classified by many scholars outside of Russia as women's prose. The idea of women's prose in Russia has always carried a pejorative tone and therefore the writers themselves, including Petrushevskaya, vehemently reject this term. As a result of the changes that have taken place in Russia in the course of the last few years the literary situation has changed radically. After the loosening and finally the complete lifting of censorship and following the demise of the officially sanctioned socialist realism writers were able to express their thoughts freely. As a result of this in the first years of perestroika five collections of women's prose were published. One of the tasks of this dissertation is to examine the concept of women's prose with respect to the situation in post communist Russia and the establishment of Petrushevskaya's place among other representatives of this movement. Until now, neither in Russia nor beyond its borders has there been a monograph length work that attempts to examine Petrushevskaya's writing and provide conclusions of a theoretical nature. The present dissertation is based on a careful examination of all works on the writing of Petrushevskaya and, in particular, a close reading of her prose. The first chapter is devoted to the question of women's prose and its history in Russia. In the second chapter the progression of Petrushevskaya's artistic work is examined. In the third chapter there is a detailed analysis of her poetics. The fourth chapter, based on an examination of the linguistic artistry of the writer, includes an analysis of the phonetics, lexicon, morphology and syntax in her works. In conclusion the changes in the writer's creative manner over the course of thirty years of her work in prose are examined, Petrushevskaya's place among authors who write contemporary women's prose is established, and her leading role in this literary movement is brought into focus. The names of Petrushevskaya's followers are also listed. The work includes a detailed bibliography of all of Petrushevskaya's works from 1960 to 1993, including her four main books: Bessmertnaya lyubov' (1988), Pesni XX veka (1988), Tri devushki v golubom (1989), and Po doroge boga Erosa (1993) as well as reviews of the performances of her plays and reviews of other works that have appeared at various times.