Voices From the Void

Liumilla Petrushevskaia is one of the best known writers in Russia today, recognized for her versatility as a dramatist, scriptwriter, and author of harrowing contemporary stories and even fairy tales. Acclaimed for her shocking portraits of the pain and loss that distinguish the life of women in Russia and the old Soviet Union, Petrushevskaia has also created texts notable for their scandalous humor and vibrant plasticity of form. This study analyses her use of genres within the context of an overall description of her ouevre. Her texts deal with stories struggling to be told even in today's Russia. Her characters are all storytellers, but the truths they attempt to express are often too terrible to be voiced aloud, and their tales are ultimately told from within a vast silence that threatens to engulf the narrative.