MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE AS A CULTURAL PHENOMENON IN RUSSIA IN THE XIX CENTURY
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2018-5-64-68
Based on the letters and memoirs of N. V. Shelgunov, V. O. Kovalevsky, N. G. Chernyshevsky and modern critical works, the phenomenon of emergence of marriage of convenience in Russia is considered. Untypical family models with a new attitude towards women are being investigated. The gender approach reveals a gradual change in the public consciousness of the role of women in the family and society. The article analyzes historical preconditions for the emergence of such a cultural phenomenon as marriage of convenience. The real implementation of the theory of “reasonable egoism”, proclaimed by N. G. Chernyshevsky in the novel “What Is to Be Done?”, is being studied. On the examples of family life of M. A. Obrucheva – P. I. Bokov, L. P. Mikhaelis – N. V. Shelgunov, S. V. Kovalevskaya – V. O. Kovalevsky and others, the fate of the participants of the love experiment can be traced. In the opinion of N. G. Chernyshevsky and his followers, a woman in marriage should not only obtain equal with a man rights, but also freedom. She can control her feelings. At the same time, men are liberators, by means of marriage helping a woman to avoid domestic despotism or giving an opportunity to get an education. In Russia the model of behavior of a noble man was conditioned by his desire to take responsibility for a woman, deprived of the civil rights by the society. N. G. Chernyshevsky showed what a decent person in Russia should do, without going beyond the framework of “reasonable egoism”. That is, in the conditions of social injustice, a man had to make up and give a woman what she did not receive from the society. The model of the noble altruistic behavior of a man firmly entered the consciousness and was developed by the part of the youth who shared the ideas of radicalism.
Keywords: N. G. Chernyshevsky, the novel “What Is to Be Done?”, marriage of convenience, the Shelgunov family, memories, Sophia and Vladimir Kovalevsky, gender studies
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Issue: 5, 2018
Series of issue: Issue 5
Rubric: GENERAL ISSUES OF PHILOLOGY
Pages: 64 — 68
Downloads: 1136