DO WOMEN HAVE FREE WILL?
(FEMALE CHARACTERS IN TODOR PEEV’S DRAMA “FUDULESCU”)
Todor Peev’s drama draws attention to the status of women in the revival family and unfolds the various patterns of acceptance, rejection or accommodation to its norms. Social changes in the transition from traditional to pseudo-modern social roles are articulated as a moral and ethical problem. The female protagonist is a young girl set out on the path of “becoming civilized,” she is the agent of social dynamics. Becoming an adult, she attempts to ground her understanding of a woman’s place in the world on the category of free will, but finds out that “the new theories” are a subject of irony. The violation of established relationships and the pursuit of fashionable bookish models turn her life into tragedy. With the proposed theme, I aim to examine the personal story of this character and that of the other female figures in the play. I relate their behavior and mentality to Fudulescu’s “new doctrine of limitless personal freedom.” Are women free in their choices, or they are the helpless prey of false ideas and remain dependent on the manipulator’s persuasions? What are their tactics for coping with the imposed authority and male dominance and what are their existentially important goals?
DO WOMEN HAVE FREE WILL?
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Maya Gorcheva
- [email protected]
- University of Library Studies and Information Technologies
- Bulgaria
Maya Gorcheva is a literary historian and Associate Professor at the University of Library Studies and Information Technologies (UniBIT), where she lectures on European culture and the sociology of literature. Her research interests encompass modern literature and culture, comparative literature and translation studies, and textual criticism. She is the author of over one hundred articles and studies, as well as nine monographs, including "Between Text and Quotation" (2004), "The Metamorphoses of the Modern Soul" (2006), "The Delicate Moods of Boris Aprilov" (2013), "New Bulgarian Books: The Success of Inhabitation" (2014), and "Albert Camus: The Possible Worlds of Literature" (2022). She is an editor and a translator of fiction and literary theory from French into Bulgarian, as well as a member of the Bulgarian section of the Academic Circle for Comparative Literature (ACCL / АКСЛИТ).
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Abstract:Todor Peev’s drama draws attention to the status of women in the revival family and unfolds the various patterns of acceptance, rejection or accommodation to its norms. Social changes in the transition from traditional to pseudo-modern social roles are articulated as a moral and ethical problem. The female protagonist is a young girl set out on the path of “becoming civilized,” she is the agent of social dynamics. Becoming an adult, she attempts to ground her understanding of a woman’s place in the world on the category of free will, but finds out that “the new theories” are a subject of irony. The violation of established relationships and the pursuit of fashionable bookish models turn her life into tragedy. With the proposed theme, I aim to examine the personal story of this character and that of the other female figures in the play. I relate their behavior and mentality to Fudulescu’s “new doctrine of limitless personal freedom.” Are women free in their choices, or they are the helpless prey of false ideas and remain dependent on the manipulator’s persuasions? What are their tactics for coping with the imposed authority and male dominance and what are their existentially important goals?
Subject: We for Others and for OurselvesKeywords: female characters becoming civilized free will Fudulescu -
References
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