The image of a "new woman" in the novel "Virgin Soil" by I. S. Turgenev and in the short story "Mourning the Dead" by Lu Xun

The object of this article is the image of "new woman" in Russian and Chinese literature. The subject of the study is the correlation between the characters of two heroines, Zijun and Marianna, who are the bearers of a new female identity, in the story "Mourning the Dead" by Lu Xun and the novel "Virgin Soil" by I. S. Turgenev. The aim of the study is to identify the main factors that determined different outcomes of the storyline of these characters, despite the similarity of their fates. In order to achieve the set goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasks: 1) to reveal the personality of the two characters by analyzing their life path, as well as the beginning and end of their respective love; 2) to analyze the author's intention based on the socio-historical context of the period of creation of these two works. The following methods were used during the study: comparative method, method of holistic analysis of a literary work, as well as cultural-historical method. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that the article is the first attempt to compare Lu Xun's short story "Mourning the Dead" with I. S. Turgenev's novel " Virgin Soil ", with special attention paid to the opposite denouement of the stories of Zijun and Marianna. Based on the analysis, it is concluded that the outcome of the fates of these heroines is directly related to their perceptions of their own lives and love, which are conditioned, in turn, by the different intentions of the authors regarding the logic of the development of their characters. The scientific significance of the study lies in the fact that the data obtained not only reveal the ideas about the image of the "new woman" in general, but also contribute to a deep comparative understanding of the analyzed books, which can contribute to the field of comparative literary studies between Russia and China.

image of new woman, author's idea, Virgin Soil, Mourning the Dead, Turgenev, Lu Xun, Marianna, Zijun, love, tragedy