Title of the article:

CONSTRUCTING THE FEMININE SUBJECT IN ZINAIDA GIPPIUS` WORKS IN THE CONTEXT OF OTTO WEININGER'S GENDER THEORY

Author(s):

Anna V. Protopopova

Ivan A. Protopopov

Information about the author/authors

Anna V. Protopopova — PhD in Philology, Senior Researcher, A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia. ORCID ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4461-3349 E-mail: avprotopopova@yandex.ru

Ivan A. Protopopov — PhD in Philosophy, Associate Professor, Saint Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation, Bolshaya Morskaya st., 67, lit. A, 190000 St. Petersburg, Russia. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2242-5512 E-mail: stiff72@mail.ru

Section

Philological sciences

Year

2022

Volume

Vol. 63

Pages

pp. 163–183

Received

December 31, 2020

Approved after reviewing

March 19, 2021

Date of publication

March 28, 2022

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37816/2073-9567-2022-63-163-183

Index UDK

821.161.1.0 + 821.112.2(436).0

Index BBK

83.3(2Рос=Рус)53 + 87.3(4Авс)53

Acknowledgments

The study was funded by Russian Science Foundation (research project 19-78-10100).

Abstract

The paper deals with the issue of interrelation of the feminine and masculine in human nature in the aspect of possibility of constructing of the feminine creative subjectivity in literature and art — one of the key issues in Zinaida Gippius studies. The main principles of her gender theory are formulated by Gippius in the context of critical analysis of the Otto Weininger's book “Gender and character”. The authors analyse the reflection of those principles in Gippius' critical article “Zverebog” and in her other articles on gender and love and some of her poems, establishing the relation of them with Gippius and Merezhkovskiy's religious ideas. The study shows that while Gippius shares with Weininger his concept of bisexuality and androgynity of human nature, she also critically reconsiders the meaning and role of feminine principle as strictly objective (even in the form of divine principle of eternal femininity) and comes to an altogether different understanding: the feminine principle is the basis of feminine subjectivity that is in essence equal to masculine and is ultimately realized in divine nature. The paper addresses several poems to illustrate this point: “She” (1), “She” (2), “Non-existent”, “Eternally feminine”. The authors also dwells upon views of Gippius on Berdiaev and Soloviev's gender ideas as well as her reception of Ibsen's literary heroines.

Keywords

Zinaida Gippius, Otto Weininger, gender, feminine objectivity.

References

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