‘Women's Theme’ in the Russian Collection ‘Great Mirror’

Abstract

Interest in the “women's theme” is actualized in Russian humanities at the turn of the 21st century in terms of the feminology, historical anthropology and the history of everyday life. However, the “women's theme” in the exemplary collections of copies translated into Russian in the 17th century, still attracts little attention of researchers. This paper for the first time draws attention to women's issues as one of the cross-cutting ones in the code “Great Mirror” in its first Russian translation. The image of a woman is characterized basing on the material of 163 articles. The content of the examples is correlated with the events of the historical past of Ancient Rus` and Russian everyday life of the 17th century. The collection devotes considerable attention to the “evil wives”. Examples of women's activity show its manifestation not only as a vice, but as a social service. A woman is encouraged to lead a Christian lifestyle, to be submissive and faithful to her husband. At the same time, the source praises her wisdom and intelligence and readiness for self-sacrifice for the sake of her family and husband. Still weak, yet already noticeable in the chapters of the “Great Mirror”, manifestations of a new attitude towards women that flourished in the transitional period of Russian culture and modern times — development in the assessment of a woman's personality, strengthening women's status in the family, breaking stereotypes about a woman — were introduced not only by elements of European culture that have penetrated into Russian everyday life, but also the world culture`s plots inherent to the “female theme” of the collection.