THE MOTIVE OF SELF-SACRIFICE IN M. ZHUKOVA AND M. VOSKRESENSKY'S PROSE: IMITATION OR CONTINUATION

Abstract

https://doi.org/10.18522/1995-0640-2025-2-124-133

The article is devoted to the question of imitation or continuation of the motive of self-sacrifices in belletristic prose of now forgotten writers of the 1830s and 1850s: M. S. Zhukova and  I. Voskresensky. Zhukova’s work is considered as women’s prose, along with the works of E. Gan, E. Tur, Yu. Zhadovskaya, K. Pavlova, and others. Voskresensky was known to the public as the author of entertaining melodramatic novels. Contemporaries of the great classics (A. S. Pushkin, N. V. Gogol, A. S. Griboyedov), Zhukovа and Voskresensky largely drew inspiration from them, refracting their images in their own way in their works. The analysis of the novels of the same names, written by these authors, demonstrate continuity of the author's creation: both writers recognize women's right to independence from a man. The motive of self-sacrifices confirms ability of women-characters to have high moral feelings and acts to save the honor of a loved one. Appeal of the writers to motive of self-sacrifices is due to attention to the fate of women. Comparison of texts reveals the similarity of the authors' views on the possibility of independent woman's life from a man in the mid-19th century. It has proved that the authors' work demonstrates continuity.

Key words: motive, prose, self-sacrifice, belletristic, hero, story, novel