Utballa by Yelena Hahn: Poetics of the Main Character’s Image Analyzed

Abstract

Introduction. The article examines poetics of the protagonist’s image in Yelena Hahn’s Utballa which was highly appreciated by V. Belinsky. The literary work remains understudied, which makes it relevant enough to be approached with interdisciplinary analytical strategies that combine both literary and philosophical components. Goals. The paper attempts an analysis of the protagonist’s image from a perspective of gendered Orientalism with due account of genre specifics. Materials and methods. The study analyzes the text of the novel describing the life drama of a half-blood girl in Russian and Kalmyk cultural environments. The fact that the author’s farther A. Fadeev had served as Chief Supervisor of the Kalmyk People — and his views on colonization may have influenced the former — proves essential in our analysis that rests on modality poetics and gendered Orientalism. Results. The insights into poetical specifics of Utballa conclude that genre narratives of realism and romanticism play a key plot-forming function in the novel. A combination of romantic and realistic narrative logics yields a unique plot of certain interest to be examined from a perspective of gendered Orientalism. The drama of the protagonist’s life is explained by that having been incorporated into European epistemic philosophical frames she tends to view from the latter positions — the Kalmyks and culture she belongs to by birth but refuses to accept. As a result, the girl finds herself in a situation of two-worldness where none of the worlds is perfect enough. Describing the tragic fate of Utballa, the author thus addresses the question of woman’s place in patriarchal society.

Keywords

• kalmyks
• russians
• poetics
• historical poetics
• novel
• mundane novel
• genre
• romanticism
• two-worldness
• gendered orientalism