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Beautiful and Desired: The Types of Female Images in the Social Text by Serhiy Zhadan

Received: 16 September 2022    Accepted: 1 November 2022    Published: 11 November 2022
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Abstract

The article explores the gallery of female characters in the social architecture by Serhiy Zhadan, represented both in his poetry and prose. It has been identified that the philosophic category of a ‘human being’ is an entity, specified through the range of subcategories: “an adult”, “a child”, “a boy”, “a girl”, “a man”, “a woman”, “an old man”, “an old woman”. Two distinct starts – ‘the man” and the “woman” – and their sociocultural roles in the printed matter by Serhiy Zhadan have been identified and analyzed. It has been proved that the texts by the author are invariably marked by the presence of a gallery of women appearing as a moment in the destiny of the man and serving as an explicit sexual object. The prevailing social roles of the woman within the body of writings from 2008 up to 2019 are the following: a hooker, somebody’s girlfriend desired either by a protagonist or by the lyrical hero, an older woman of experience, an explicit sexual object, a drunk fast woman, women as the source of problems and men’s failures, an under-age looking adult. The components of the female image comprise the manner of dress, hair, make-up, accessories, shoes, perfumes, weight. The oxymoron embodied in the triad “women-church-alcohol” or “priest-women-laughter” takes place. The uncovered wintry nature is associated with the female nudity. The author’s texts sometimes fall into Boccaccio’s mockery and Chaucerian ridicule of religion. Within the European chronotope prostitution and pornography are depicted as a rudiment of the past and is viewed as a profession type, whereas in the Ukrainian context it is portrayed as an inseparable part of the home sociography. Throughout the analyzed poetry and prose it is impossible to find a single image of a respectable woman. Social text by Serghiy Zhadan brings the mixture of characters from the combined epochs – the Soviet times, the 1990s, the present. The author ridicules social extremes and the confusion of the social architecture produced by the rapid change of the epochs: Perestroika, the dark criminal 90s, the noughties.

Published in Humanities and Social Sciences (Volume 10, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.hss.20221006.11
Page(s) 356-360
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Genderology, Female Anthropology, Feminology, Social Architecture, Sociocultural Role

References
[1] Lakoff, R. Language and Woman's Place. New York: Harper & Row, 1975. 85 p.
[2] Mankiieva E. H. Gender kak literaturoviedchieskaia probliema: metodologicheskii aspekt [Gender as a literary problem: methodological aspect]. Filologichieskiie nauki. Voprosi teorii i praktiki. 2017. № 12 (78). V. 4. P. 38-4.
[3] Tomashevska Zh. Semantyko-kognityvnyi analiz kontseptu “zhinka” u poezii S. Zhadana [Semantic-cognitive analysis of the concept “the woman” in the poetry by S. Zhadan]. IV Vseukrayinska konserentsiia studentiv, aspirantiv I molodyh ychenyh “Movnyi prostir slovyanskogo svitu”. Kyiv: Natsionalnyi universytet “Kyevo-Mohylianska academia”. 2018. P. 45-47.
[4] Zhadan S. V. Arnachy in the UKR. Kharkiv: Folio, 2008. 223 p. [in Ukrainian].
[5] Zhadan S. V. Voroshilovgrad: a novel. Kharkiv: Book Club: “Family Leisure Club”, 2019. 320 p. [in Ukrainian].
[6] Zhadan S. V. Efiopiia. [Ethiopia]. Kharkiv: Folio, 2011. 121 p. [in Ukrainian].
[7] Zhadan S. V. Maradona. Kharkiv: Folio, 2008. 169 p. [in Ukrainian].
[8] Zhadan S. V. Tsytatnyk. [The Quote Book]. Kharkiv: Folio, 2008. 215 p. [in Ukrainian].
[9] Trofymenko T. 7 typiv zhinochyh obraziv suchasnoiyi ukrayinskoyi literatury: u chomy syla, sestro? [7 types of female images of contemporary Ukrainian literature: what is the source of power, sister?]. URL: https://povaha.org.ua/7-typiv-zhinochyh-obraziv-suchasnoji-ukrajinskoji-literatury-u-chomu-syla-sestro/ (viewed 31 October, 2022) [in Ukrainian].
[10] Shevchuk N. Zhinka vid antychnosti do suchasnosti [A woman from the antiquity up to the modernity]. URL: https://news.informer.od.ua/zhinka_uriznyh_epohah (viewed 31 October, 2022) [in Ukrainian].
[11] Trofymenko T. (Ne)sterva. (Ne)Yaroslavna. (Ne)zhertva. Yak u suchasnii ukrayinskii literature zhinku pyshut pro zhinok. [(Not) a bitch. (Not) Yarosvavna. (Not) a victim. How in the modern Ukrainian literature women write about women]. URL: https://texty.org.ua/articles/98421/Nesterva_NeJaroslavna_Nezhertva_Jak_u_suchasnij_ukrajinskij-98421/ (viewed 31 October, 2022) [in Ukrainian].
[12] Kutsyk O. Kontseptualizatsiia obrazu zhinky v ukrayinskii ta rosiiskii paremiologii [Conceptualization of women’s image in the Ukrainian and Russian Paremias]. Ridne slovo v etnokulturnomu vymiri [Native word in the ethno-cultural dimension]. 2015. P. 131-140. [in Ukrainian].
[13] Bilous N. V. Stylyovi osoblyvosti modeliuvannia zhinochyh harakteriv v ukrayinskii literature drugoyi polovyny XIX pochatku XX stolittya [Stylistic peculiarities in modelling of female characters in the Ukrainian literature of the second half of the XIXth the beginning of the XXth centuries]: thesis. Kyiv, 2015. 189 p. [in Ukrainian].
[14] Bedzir N. P. Zhinocha tema v ukrayinskii, slovatskii ta rosiyskii postmodernistychnii prozi [Female topic in the Ukrainian, Slovak and Russian prose].. Studia slovakistica. Uzhgorod, 2015. P. 145-152.
[15] Otkovych K. Iliuziia svobody [Illusion of freedom]. Kyiv: “Karbon”, 2010. 210 p.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Tetiana Starostenko, Ianina Gurtova, Yuliia Hetman, Mariia Horovenko, Yuliia Laktina, et al. (2022). Beautiful and Desired: The Types of Female Images in the Social Text by Serhiy Zhadan. Humanities and Social Sciences, 10(6), 356-360. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20221006.11

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    Tetiana Starostenko; Ianina Gurtova; Yuliia Hetman; Mariia Horovenko; Yuliia Laktina, et al. Beautiful and Desired: The Types of Female Images in the Social Text by Serhiy Zhadan. Humanit. Soc. Sci. 2022, 10(6), 356-360. doi: 10.11648/j.hss.20221006.11

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    AMA Style

    Tetiana Starostenko, Ianina Gurtova, Yuliia Hetman, Mariia Horovenko, Yuliia Laktina, et al. Beautiful and Desired: The Types of Female Images in the Social Text by Serhiy Zhadan. Humanit Soc Sci. 2022;10(6):356-360. doi: 10.11648/j.hss.20221006.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.hss.20221006.11,
      author = {Tetiana Starostenko and Ianina Gurtova and Yuliia Hetman and Mariia Horovenko and Yuliia Laktina and Olena Yehorova},
      title = {Beautiful and Desired: The Types of Female Images in the Social Text by Serhiy Zhadan},
      journal = {Humanities and Social Sciences},
      volume = {10},
      number = {6},
      pages = {356-360},
      doi = {10.11648/j.hss.20221006.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20221006.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.hss.20221006.11},
      abstract = {The article explores the gallery of female characters in the social architecture by Serhiy Zhadan, represented both in his poetry and prose. It has been identified that the philosophic category of a ‘human being’ is an entity, specified through the range of subcategories: “an adult”, “a child”, “a boy”, “a girl”, “a man”, “a woman”, “an old man”, “an old woman”. Two distinct starts – ‘the man” and the “woman” – and their sociocultural roles in the printed matter by Serhiy Zhadan have been identified and analyzed. It has been proved that the texts by the author are invariably marked by the presence of a gallery of women appearing as a moment in the destiny of the man and serving as an explicit sexual object. The prevailing social roles of the woman within the body of writings from 2008 up to 2019 are the following: a hooker, somebody’s girlfriend desired either by a protagonist or by the lyrical hero, an older woman of experience, an explicit sexual object, a drunk fast woman, women as the source of problems and men’s failures, an under-age looking adult. The components of the female image comprise the manner of dress, hair, make-up, accessories, shoes, perfumes, weight. The oxymoron embodied in the triad “women-church-alcohol” or “priest-women-laughter” takes place. The uncovered wintry nature is associated with the female nudity. The author’s texts sometimes fall into Boccaccio’s mockery and Chaucerian ridicule of religion. Within the European chronotope prostitution and pornography are depicted as a rudiment of the past and is viewed as a profession type, whereas in the Ukrainian context it is portrayed as an inseparable part of the home sociography. Throughout the analyzed poetry and prose it is impossible to find a single image of a respectable woman. Social text by Serghiy Zhadan brings the mixture of characters from the combined epochs – the Soviet times, the 1990s, the present. The author ridicules social extremes and the confusion of the social architecture produced by the rapid change of the epochs: Perestroika, the dark criminal 90s, the noughties.},
     year = {2022}
    }
    

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    T1  - Beautiful and Desired: The Types of Female Images in the Social Text by Serhiy Zhadan
    AU  - Tetiana Starostenko
    AU  - Ianina Gurtova
    AU  - Yuliia Hetman
    AU  - Mariia Horovenko
    AU  - Yuliia Laktina
    AU  - Olena Yehorova
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    JF  - Humanities and Social Sciences
    JO  - Humanities and Social Sciences
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    EP  - 360
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2330-8184
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20221006.11
    AB  - The article explores the gallery of female characters in the social architecture by Serhiy Zhadan, represented both in his poetry and prose. It has been identified that the philosophic category of a ‘human being’ is an entity, specified through the range of subcategories: “an adult”, “a child”, “a boy”, “a girl”, “a man”, “a woman”, “an old man”, “an old woman”. Two distinct starts – ‘the man” and the “woman” – and their sociocultural roles in the printed matter by Serhiy Zhadan have been identified and analyzed. It has been proved that the texts by the author are invariably marked by the presence of a gallery of women appearing as a moment in the destiny of the man and serving as an explicit sexual object. The prevailing social roles of the woman within the body of writings from 2008 up to 2019 are the following: a hooker, somebody’s girlfriend desired either by a protagonist or by the lyrical hero, an older woman of experience, an explicit sexual object, a drunk fast woman, women as the source of problems and men’s failures, an under-age looking adult. The components of the female image comprise the manner of dress, hair, make-up, accessories, shoes, perfumes, weight. The oxymoron embodied in the triad “women-church-alcohol” or “priest-women-laughter” takes place. The uncovered wintry nature is associated with the female nudity. The author’s texts sometimes fall into Boccaccio’s mockery and Chaucerian ridicule of religion. Within the European chronotope prostitution and pornography are depicted as a rudiment of the past and is viewed as a profession type, whereas in the Ukrainian context it is portrayed as an inseparable part of the home sociography. Throughout the analyzed poetry and prose it is impossible to find a single image of a respectable woman. Social text by Serghiy Zhadan brings the mixture of characters from the combined epochs – the Soviet times, the 1990s, the present. The author ridicules social extremes and the confusion of the social architecture produced by the rapid change of the epochs: Perestroika, the dark criminal 90s, the noughties.
    VL  - 10
    IS  - 6
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • English Philology Department, H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Kharkiv, Ukraine

  • English Philology Department, H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Kharkiv, Ukraine

  • English Philology Department, H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Kharkiv, Ukraine

  • English Philology Department, H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Kharkiv, Ukraine

  • English Philology Department, H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Kharkiv, Ukraine

  • Department of Practice of Oral and Written English, H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Kharkiv, Ukraine

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