Theoretical and Methodological Foundations of The Representation of Female Psychology in Nineteenth-Century Russian And English Drama
Abstract
The article establishes the theoretical and methodological foundations required for a comparative study of female psychology in nineteenth-century Russian and English drama, prior to any close analysis of individual plays. Three tasks are addressed. First, the historical-cultural development of Russian and English drama is traced, from the satirical comedy of Griboedov and Gogol and the sentimental melodrama of the early Victorian stage to the psychological realism of A.N.Ostrovsky and the New Drama associated with G.B.Shaw, showing how the interpretation of the female image shifted from a moral or comic type to an autonomous psychological subject. Second, the aesthetic, psychological and social features through which drama expresses female psychology are defined as a three-level analytical framework. Third, the principles and criteria of the comparative-typological method are established, distinguishing typological affinity from genetic influence. Together these foundations justify treating the two national traditions as a legitimate object of comparison.
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