A Romantic Heroine or a Femme Fatale?: Russian Interpretations of Akhmatova’s Creative Self in the 21st Century

• In Event: Liberating Russian Authors from the Soviet Cultural Canon in the 21st Century

Abstract

The paper will analyze the lack of understanding of Akhmatova’s complexity as a modernist female poet and a myth-maker exemplified by Svetlana Kovalenko’s ZhZL 2009 biography of Akhmatova that focuses on her love affairs, Tamara Kataeva’s scandalous book Anti-Akhmatova (2013) and Dmitry Bykov’s 2022 book Neproshchennaia Akhmatova that examines the poet as an ambivalent female persona who embodies the traits of the saint and the sinner simultaneously.

Author

• Alexandra Smith, U of Edinburgh (UK)