A COMPARISON OF “THE BLACK COAT” AND “THE OVERCOAT”: SIGNIFYING THE PRIMAL ROLE OF WOMEN WRITERS IN THE RUSSIAN SHORT STORY TRADITION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29121/shodhkosh.v3.i2SE.2022.250Keywords:
Paradigm Shift, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, Nikolai Gogol, Russian Short Story Tradition, NarrativeAbstract [English]
This paper examines the paradigm shift in the genre of Russian horror short stories, and this tectonic shift is exemplified by a parallel reading of Nikolai Gogol’s “The Overcoat” and Ludmilla Petrushevskaya’s “The Black Coat”. The juxtaposition of these two stories exposes how male writers have always been placed on a pedestal in the Russian literary canon. In contrast, this paper highlights how the contributions of their female counterparts have been constantly sidelined, though both streams of works enriched the vast field of the Russian literary empire. Narratology theory is used to highlight the narrative techniques of both authors since it examines what narratives share and what makes them unique. This is illustrated by demonstrating how writers like Petrushevskya have dismantled the common notion that only male writers contribute to the technical aspects of a genre. Using the comparative methodology, this paper also traces the tradition of this genre and the holistic perspective towards the Russian women writers who outpoured their creative capacity, good enough to be recognised and appreciated. The conclusion of the paper discusses the way Ludmilla Petrushevskaya broke the former institution of short stories with a touch of psychic horror (female psyche) by going along with the characteristic features of Russian literature: the inner world of characters.
Downloads
References
Books, F. (2022, February 9). The Best Books on the Best Russian Short Stories - Five Books Expert Recommendations. Five Books.
Choules, R. (2013, September 19). Nikolai Gogol : The Madness of Dead Souls. Culture Trip.
Dimov, E. (2020, March 16). About Russian Women’s Literature – Contemporary Russian Literature.
Eliot, G. (2010). Silly Novels by Lady Novelists. Penguin Books.
Hansen, J. (1999, July 26). Short Story : Definition, Characteristics, Examples, History, & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica.
Hong, N. (n.d.). The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol Plot Summary. LitCharts.
Mambrol, N. (2019, September 28). Analysis of Anton Chekhov’s Stories. Literary Theory and Criticism.
Nikolai, G. (2023). Overcoat and Other Short Stories. Dover.
Norton, I. (2015, July 8). Truth through Fairy Tale : Despair and Hope in the Fiction of Ludmilla Petrushevskaya. Dissent Magazine.
Pal, S. (2016, June 1). Reality Through Phantasm : A Study of Ludmilla Petrushevskaya’S Fantastical Tales.
Petrushevskaya, L., Gessen, K., & Summers, A. (2009). There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby : Scary Fairy Tales (Original). Penguin Books.
Schwartz, A. (2015, June 29). Sometimes a Small Redemption : On Ludmilla Petrushevskaya. The Nation.
Woolf, V. (2003). Women and Writing (First). Mariner Books.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 M. Padmavathy
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
With the licence CC-BY, authors retain the copyright, allowing anyone to download, reuse, re-print, modify, distribute, and/or copy their contribution. The work must be properly attributed to its author.
It is not necessary to ask for further permission from the author or journal board.
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.