Information about the author:
Alexey Yu. Ovcharenko
Alexey Yu. Ovcharenko, DSc in Philology, Professor, Department of Russian Language and Cultural Linguistics, Russian Language Institute, People’s Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba, Miklukho-Maklaya St., 10, bld. 3, 117198 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8544-5812
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Abstract:
This article examines Vera Inber’s prose work of the 1920s as a unique phenomenon in the context of women’s literature of the early Soviet era. The author of the paper focuses on the story “A Place Under the Sun” (1928), demonstrating that Inber succeeded in combining personal and social elements, inner confessionality and documentary precision, while maintaining the ironic tone and analytical depth characteristic of her poetic style. Particular attention is paid to the poetics of fragmentation and the principle of “hermetic” narrative, which gradually give way to narrative integrity, reflecting the heroine’s process of internal maturation. Through a system of everyday and philosophical motifs, the work’s key idea — the need for continuous movement, creative and spiritual transformation — is revealed. The heroine’s transition from a personal “I” to a collective “we” is interpreted as a metaphor for the formation of a new Soviet identity, while Inber strives to preserve the individual principle within the collective experience.
Keywords: Vera Inber, сonstructivism, women’s prose, autobiographical writing, narrative structure, individual / collective, Soviet identity.
