REPRESENTATIONS OF FEMININITY IN TOLSTOY’S NOVEL WAR AND PEACE
REPRESENTATIONS OF FEMININITY IN TOLSTOY’S NOVEL WAR AND PEACE

REPRESENTATIONS OF FEMININITY IN TOLSTOY’S NOVEL WAR AND PEACE

Summary/Abstract: This study presents the epic role of the feminine character in a mixed novelistic formula, Tolstoy’s formula that reunites heroic narrative structures with family novel structures. The War and Peace cycle is Tolstoy’s Iliad and Odyssey in the context of a realistic, modern vision of the 19th century and a distinct personal attitude towards both the concept of heroism (valid in wartime) and woman’s role in peacetime. A conservative, even misogynistic writer, Tolstoy turns the epilogue of his novel into an ode to life and the Demeter-like woman who keeps on living and is capable of repairing the damage that war has caused. Like Pierre, Natasha is an illustration of “Karataevism”, Tolstoy’s specific concept of the “Evangelical simplicity” of the true way of life.

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