The Theme of Gender-Violence in Zinaida Tulub’s Novel “Man-hunters”

Abstract

The article suggest to identify the principal types of descriptions of gender violence and their role in shaping the female characters of the historical novel «Man eaters» by the Ukrainian writer Zinaida Tulub, as well as to trace the influence of social and gender issues on the stylistic structure of the novel.

Attention is drawn to the reflection of the theme of violence and its evolution in the history of Ukrainian literature. Attention is focused on the writer’s critical view of women’s fate in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Ottoman Empire, and the Tsardom of Muscovy of the 17^th century.

The following types of gender-based violence are systematized: rape, murder and abduction of children, human trafficking, everyday violence, religious control over women, etc. The author has recorded the main stylistic means used by Zinaida Tulub when depicting gender violence in the novel (landscapes, symbolic images, similes, etc.).

The article offers a comparative analysis of two central female characters in the novel who are victims of these forms of gender violence: the Ukrainian peasant Horpyna Korzh, who finds herself in captivity in a Tatar village, and the Tatar peasant Medzhe, who is kidnapped by Ukrainian Cossacks. The parallel development of these female characters in the novel allows us to draw conclusions about the universality of this violence.

An attempt is made to consider Zinaida Tulub’s works in the context of women’s prose in the 19^th and at the beginning of the 20^th centuries. Delving into the inner state of female characters experiencing deep emotional catastrophes is one of the characteristics of this prose.

The appeal to the facts of the writer’s biography makes it possible to offer a feminist understanding of the work’s issues from the point of view of modern humanities. The article emphasizes the relevance of the study of gender violence in contemporary literary studies.