Polilog: Studia Neofilologiczne (Jun 2012)
Авторские стратегии Зинаиды Гиппиус: конструирование «женственности» в Contes d’amour
Abstract
Artistic strategies of constructing femininity in Contes d’amour Zinaida Gippius The subject of the present paper is very personal journal of Zinaida Gippius called Contes d’Amour (1893-1904). Poetess commenced her literary career in theearly 1890s. As the author Gippius appears as a creator-oriented texts written expressly for the male style, which makes itself felt even in something as personal as a private diary. The book moves on such topics of her life like a marriage, sexuality, religion. In each instance, she refused to be defined by any except her own terms. She expressed a masculine aesthetic in much of her work, and yet she embraced the vestiges of the eternally feminine in her life. Gippius is considered one of the early theoretician and practitioners of Androgyny who rejected the traditional male / female roles as early as the 1890s. She wrote in her intimate diary: «I do not desire exclusive femininity, just as I do not desire exclusive masculinity. In my thoughts, my desires, in my spirit. I am more a man; in my body. I am more a woman. Yet they are so fused together I know nothing». Herself an androgynous figure, Gippius advocated equality between the sexes in what she considered the two most important elements of life – spirituality and sexuality. The ratio to the journal authors can best be described as very ambivalent. Gippius often wanted to leave to continue the record, or even destroy it. The reason for writing the log is typical like for many other writers – to replace a partner to talk. Many times the text is literary game, mask, self-constructing his biography. Under the influence of cultural models writer creates an image of his life in the text of diary. Taking all this into consideration it becomes clear that the text is written to assist in finding Gippius of his female identity also in her wishes and thoughts.