| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/11401/79011 | |
| dcterms.abstract | This dissertation addresses the literary witches in American and Russian twentieth century literatures. It investigates why and to what effect images of witches and witchcraft are appropriated by individual authors in different historical situations. My study focuses on literary witches as personification of conspiratorial female power. Witches come in different forms, shapes, ages and colors. They possess contradictory powers. They can be evil or benevolent, old or young, mythological or historical, powerful or vulnerable, repellent or attractive but one constant remains: they are feared. I closely read the authors’ selected texts to argue that literary witches are representations of a desiring, and thus deviant and dangerous part of femininity that is channeled, policed and contained in many psychological, socioeconomic and cultural ways, including storytelling.
Overall, my project on literary witches reveals three trends. First, the witch is a powerful double strategy of containment that attempts to keep repressed material in check but ultimately fails. Second, the authors of the literary works under investigation override the traditional physical and moral monstrosity of the witch and present a nuanced modern version of the witch emphasizing her ambiguity and capacity for good and evil. Third, in their literary works Bulgakov, Updike, Tsvetaeva, and Sexton participate in a reevaluation of the witch as a problematic/positive symbol of femininity and thus anticipate the contemporary proliferation of witches in American and Russian literary and cinematic productions. My prognosis is that the literary witches will morph into a variety of new forms and acquire new meanings as they continue to be symptomatic and symbolic of cultural attitudes toward femininity. | |
| dcterms.available | 2021-03-16T20:11:00Z | |
| dcterms.available | 2022-09-04 | |
| dcterms.available | 2021-11-23T21:14:40Z | |
| dcterms.contributor | Advisor(s): Bottigheimer, Ruth B.; Petrey, Sandy | |
| dcterms.contributor | Committee Member(s): Gabbard, Krin; Kalinowska-Blackwood, Izabela; Nicholas Rzhevsky, Nicholas; Marker, Gary | |
| dcterms.creator | Kondratyuk, Marta | |
| dcterms.dateAccepted | 2021-03-16T20:11:00Z | |
| dcterms.dateAccepted | 2015-01-01 | |
| dcterms.dateAccepted | 2021-11-23T21:14:40Z | |
| dcterms.description | Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature | |
| dcterms.description | Dissertation | |
| dcterms.extent | 217 pages | |
| dcterms.issued | 2015 | |
| dcterms.language | en | |
| dcterms.provenance | Submitted by Dana Reijerkerk (dana.reijerkerk@stonybrook.edu) on 2021-03-16T20:11:00Z
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| dcterms.provenance | Made available in DSpace on 2021-03-16T20:11:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1
Kondratyuk_grad.sunysb_0771E_12465.pdf: 1444707 bytes, checksum: 81ba8d9328fd871a36af77829bf8b077 (MD5)
Previous issue date: 2015 | en |
| dcterms.provenance | Made available in DSpace on 2021-11-23T21:14:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
license.txt: 2349 bytes, checksum: 6814eec9a3f3f30924c67dbf996f2d5d (MD5)
Kondratyuk_grad.sunysb_0771E_12465.pdf: 1444707 bytes, checksum: 81ba8d9328fd871a36af77829bf8b077 (MD5) | en |
| dcterms.publisher | Stony Brook University | |
| dcterms.subject | Bulgakov, literary witches, Sexton, Tsvetaeva, Updike | |
| dcterms.title | The Inner Witch: Channeling and Containing Femininity | |
| dcterms.type | Text | |
