Passion, Humiliation, Revenge – Hatred in Man-Woman Relationships in the 19th and 20th Century Russian Novel, 2008 (English)

Passion, Humiliation, Revenge – Hatred in Man-Woman Relationships in the 19th and 20th Century Russian Novel, Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2008. This book examines a particular aspect of the hatred of women in nineteenth and twentieth century Russian literature. A man is involved in a romantic relationship with a woman. He feels he is superior to the woman and almost divine, deserving the woman's admiration or even worship. But instead of demonstrating her esteem and respect to him, she treats him as if he were inferior to her. He feels humiliated and despised by the woman. He feels castrated by her, because she behaves like a man and gives him the role of a woman. He wishes to restore his own self-respect and avenge himself on her for the bad feelings she gives him. He wants to murder her, and if it is not in his power to hurt her, he harms himself. He becomes an alcoholic or mentally sick or commits suicide. The book discusses the works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Lev Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Michail Zoschenko, Yuri Trifonov, Nikolai Leskov, Ivan Turgenev, Alexandr Kuprin, Michail Bulgakov, Boris Vasilyev, Vasily Grossman, Valentin Rasputin, Sergei Dovlatov, Yiri Nagibin, Yuri Polyakov, Galina Tcherbakova, Dina Rubina, Lyudmila Ulitzkaya, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya and Irina Grekova.