Writing Alone: The Critical Reception and Literary Exclusion of Karolina Pavlova

• In Event: 19th-Century Russophone Women Writers I: The Poets Bunina, Pavlova, and Rostopchina

Abstract

This paper will explore the literary output, publishing history, and critical reception of Karolina Pavlova to better understand the social and institutional forces that shaped her oeuvre and legacy. Themes to be explored include the critical dismissal of Pavlova's early work by male literary critics; the impact of negative critical assessments on her future writings; generic and conventional expectations of women writers by their contemporaries; challenges to these stereotypes in her work; and self-censorship. In addition to social and institutional barriers, the paper will explore the formal features of her writing, including double-voiced narratives, innovative phrasing, and gender play. This study is part of a book project, Writing for the Drawer, that examines the active exclusion of women, Jewish, and African American writers from the literary process, and the impact of their deliberate isolation from potential readers on their work.

Author

• Andrea Lanoux, Connecticut College