«Дочь писателя»: женская идентичность в автобиографической прозе В. Л. Андреевой

Abstract

The paper explores the female identity in the autobiographical prose by Vera Leonidovna Andreeva (1910–1986), daughter of the famous writer Leonid Andreev. The materials for the study are the story “The House on the Black River” and the novel “Echo of the Past”. Firstly, we examine the process of gender identification in the writer’s childhood, which was determined by her growing up and communicating with peers and relatives. Further, we research the formation of female subjectivity during the emigration, under conditions of intercultural interaction, adaptation to foreign cultures, collision with local stereotypes. Important factors for the gender self-determination of the writer are the image of her mother and communication with representatives of the Russian diaspora, including Sasha Chorny, Marina Tsvetaeva, Alexander Vertinsky etc. The reflections of the modern era are the writer's attempts to master women's professions, the circle of which was still quite narrow. Finally, by the example of Vera Leonidovna Andreeva, the paper focuses on the phenomenon of the “writer's daughter”, which often affected the attitude of other people towards the narrator and, of course, influenced the formation of her writing talent.