Conclusion

David Gillespie

From Valentin Rasputin and Soviet Russian Village Prose (1986), pp. 61-63, doi:10.59860/td.c0546d6

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Part of the book: Valentin Rasputin and Soviet Russian Village Prose

David C. Gillespie

MHRA Texts and Dissertations 22

Modern Humanities Research Association

ContemporaryRussianFictionopen


Abstract.  Like Pasternak's Doktor Zhivago, Rasputin' works show Russia in transition, where revolution is accompanied by catastrophe. Death corresponds to winter, and water – the flow of time and history – causes change and disruption. Rasputin's heroines, like Lara, are Mother Russia personified. Rasputin's portrayal of women, moreover, is a hymn of praise to that section of the population who have suffered most in Soviet history. He is concerned not with external sexual relationships, as are the Soviet 'urban' writers, but with the inner world of woman. Women embody love, warmth, stability, and fortitude in an uncertain age.

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