OPPOSITION “MALE-FEMALE” IN THE NOVEL BY M.A. SHOLOKHOV “THE QUIET DON”

Abstract

The article attempts to address one of the little-studied problems of gender philology. The phenomenon of male-female opposition in Russian literature is investigated. On the material of the novel-epic M.A. Sholokhov “The Quiet Don” the researcher considers the writer’s understanding of the peculiarity of male and female beginnings as one of the central universals of the Russian literature. The article provides examples of contrasting the attributes of male and female portraits. The traditional gender characteristics of the characters in the novel are emphasized. Characters that do not correspond to the classical interpretation of the gender aspect are considered separately using non-verbal characteristics of the opposite sex in the description. Particular attention is paid to the so-called color polarity of the male and female characters of Sholokhov’s novel. Conclusions about the features of the writer’s psychology in terms of the depiction of male and female characters in the work are made.