Becoming a Woman: The female Initiation Story in Russian Literature, 1792-1861

This study analyzes five texts of female development appearing in Russian literature between 1792 and 1861: Nikolai Karamzin's "Bednaia Liza", Aleksandr Pushkin's Evgenii Onegin, Karolina Pavlova's Dvoinaia zhizn', Lev Tolstoi's Semeinoe schast'e, and Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaia's Pansionerka. These works are reviewed within the context of their cultural relevance, historical background, and structural composition. The dissertation examines the origins and implications of the symbolic opposition of the feminine to the masculine in the Russian cultural tradition and traces its influence on the emergence of narratives depicting female transition into adulthood. The study outlines the peculiarities of the approach to the topic of female maturation by Russian writers in the 1790s – 1860s and identifies the discrepancies in the interpretation of womanhood by authors of opposite genders.

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