Literature also has sexual characteristics. This is not only about the female characters in literary works, but also about the writing of female writers. This book addresses the “second sex” in Russian literature, reviews the female characters in works of 19^th century Russian writers such as Karamzin, Pushkin, Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy, and meanwhile gives an analysis of the feminine subjects in the writings of modern Russian female writers such as Ulitskaya, Tatyana Tolstaya and Petrushevskaya. An interpretation of Russian literature from a gender perspective can deepen our understanding of the concept “Russian literature” and therefore enrich our knowledge and grasp of Russian literature.

This is a National Social Science Fund project and a “985” engineering project of Renmin University of China.  

Ms. Chen Fang, with a Doctor of Letters degree from Peking University, is now an associate professor in the Russian Department of School of Foreign Languages, Renmin University of China. Ms. Chen is the author of monographs such as A Study on Modern Russian Women’s Novel Writing and The Big Garden of Russian Literature (co-author) and the translator of novels and academic books such as Literary Portraits, Doctor Kukotskoho’s Medical Cases, Number One, or Other Opportunities in the Gardens and History of Immigrant Literature in 20^th Century Russia. She has also published more than 20 articles in journals like Foreign Literature Review, World Literature, Foreign Literature and Translations, and has translated a total of more than 500, 000 words.

1. The term “second sex” was first coined by the French writer Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex, a book that is considered a “feminist bible”. In the book, Ms. Beauvoir interprets and reveals the world of the second sex (i.e. women) in a comprehensive and profound way and fights for women’s rights based on that. 
2. This book studies Russian literature from a gender perspective (of female writers and female characters).
3. The book is written in a smooth style and characterized by concrete and in-depth analyses.