Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• ROSSLYN, WENDY

Titel

Self and Place in Life-Writings by Late Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century Russian Noblewomen

Ist Teil von

• The Slavonic and East European review (1928), 2010-01, Vol.88 (1/2), p.237-260

Ort / Verlag

Maney Publishing

Erscheinungsjahr

2010

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This article examines life-writings by Varvara Bakunina (1773-1840), Anastasiia Kolechitskaia (1800-71), and Varvara Sheremeteva (1786-1857), focusing on their constructions of self in their everyday lives in particular places. Sheremeteva remains within traditional prescriptions of femininity, concerned with others' perceptions of her self rather than with its inner essence. Bakunina is powerfully affected by place, in respect both of way of life and perception of codes of feminine behaviour. She redefines herself as strong, courageous and rational. Kolechitskaia's self is cultivated to be largely immune to changes of circumstance. Like Bakunina, Kolechitskaia disputes the culturally imposed group identity for women with the articulation of a single, complex, stable individual self with firm moral and rational principles.