GENDER CONFLICT IN THE PROSE BY OLGA SLAVNIKOVA

Abstract

The article gives an analysis of the prose by O. Slavnikova from the point of view of a gender approach and to identify the features of gender conflict. Gender conflict in the prose of O. Slavnikova can be traced in the images of women characters, as in the novel ‘Dragonfly Enlarged to the Size of a Dog’, in the destruction of gender stereotypes in the novel ‘Alone in the Mirror’, when the characters do not meet the standards of behavior traditionally considered to be “male” or “female” in society. And in the novel ‘Immortal’ gender relationships are escalated with the leaving of Klimov – Marina’s husband. The love-and-family troubles can be traced in the relationships of the characters and in the destruction of the institution of the family: a break in relationships between husband and wife, changes in the worldviews of the main characters, etc. One important plot-forming element in the escalation of gender conflict in novels by Olga Slavnikova is male infidelity and more rarely female infidelity. Male infidelity is characterized by aggressiveness, authoritarianism, dominance in relationships with the opposite sex. Slavnikova’s characters sometimes refute traditional ideas about masculinity (Antonov (“Alone in the mirror”), Klimov (“Immortal”), Krylov (“2017”). The gender world in Olga Slavnikova’s novels is depicted by various plot-compositional lines that expose the social problems of modern Russian society to the reader.