Liudmila Petrushevskaia’s The Time: Night is, for lack of a better phrase, a family novel in that it delves into familial relationships specifically regarding motherhood. Petrushevskaia explores three generations of women: The grandmother Sima, mother Anna, and daughter Alyona. Delving into manic hysteria, Anna’s situation portrays a cyclical view of history wherein Anna’s life repeats that of Sima; leaving us to assume that Alyona will also follow suit. Anna’s crazed view on motherhood and the relationship portrayed between the daughters appears bleak as the cyclical nature of history negates a possible utopia. Anna’s role as a mother breaks from the traditional motherhood one would assume. Typically, mothership extends to children
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This view departs dramatically from the Marxist dialectic which sees history as constantly moving forwards. In Kollontai’s Three Generations, Kollontai constantly progresses through revolutionary sexuality with each generation. There is no true repetition as each daughter gets increasingly revolutionary. This tone and structure allow for us to imagine a revolutionary utopia in the future. While Kollontai never provides a true synthesis, we can still remain optimistic as Zhenya continues on with her life. However, Petrushevskaia creates a cyclical storyline in constantly devolving squalor. The cyclical nature of generational evolution goes against the linearly increasing revolutionary generational evolution seen in Kollontai. Combined with the bleak setting Petrushevskaia paints, she seemingly argues against a utopian ideal and settles with the utter mediocrity of the world. Yet, Petrushevskaia creates a way out of this loop of sorts by having Alyona leave her mother and later get Anna’s writing published. While this might be a type of mania on Alyona’s part (if we can project Anna’s behaviors onto Alyona) to try and take care of her own mother like Anna does with Sima, I believe that Alyona breaks the chain allowing us to believe that perhaps, the world has potential to
This view departs dramatically from the Marxist dialectic which sees history as constantly moving forwards. In Kollontai’s Three Generations, Kollontai constantly progresses through revolutionary sexuality with each generation. There is no true repetition as each daughter gets increasingly revolutionary. This tone and structure allow for us to imagine a revolutionary utopia in the future. While Kollontai never provides a true synthesis, we can still remain optimistic as Zhenya continues on with her life. However, Petrushevskaia creates a cyclical storyline in constantly devolving squalor. The cyclical nature of generational evolution goes against the linearly increasing revolutionary generational evolution seen in Kollontai. Combined with the bleak setting Petrushevskaia paints, she seemingly argues against a utopian ideal and settles with the utter mediocrity of the world. Yet, Petrushevskaia creates a way out of this loop of sorts by having Alyona leave her mother and later get Anna’s writing published. While this might be a type of mania on Alyona’s part (if we can project Anna’s behaviors onto Alyona) to try and take care of her own mother like Anna does with Sima, I believe that Alyona breaks the chain allowing us to believe that perhaps, the world has potential to