About the author:
Maria Cymborska-Leboda, Professor, Dr. Hab., Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (Institute of Neophilology, Doctoral School), Poland, 20-031, Lublin, Pl. M. Curie-Sklodowskiej, 5/1508.
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ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8666-3563
Abstract:
The article reviews estimations of the “intellectual acuity” and literary qualities of Zinaida Gippius’s emigration prose and its links with European philosophy of the first half of the Twentieth Century (Martin Buber, 232 Gabriel Marcel). The article offers an examination of models exemplifying relationships with the Other, and discusses the concept of the Other in Gippius’s fiction. The analysis applied focuses on the following issues: (1) the projection of an idealized (utopian) relationship with the Other (the concept of “Tenderness”), and the perception of the feminine as an expression of particular Otherness; (2) plot situations highlighting the opposition Thou- It; (3) a model enabling the tracking of the transition from the ontology of human relationships, and the separation expressed in I-He/She, to the ethic of responsibility for the Other or sympathetic participation in His/Her being.