Литературная деятельность А.В. Тырковой-Вильямс и миф о ностальгии
The Literary Activity of A.V. Tyrkova-Williams and the Myth of Nostalgia

Summary/Abstract: This article deals with the peculiarities of the artistic embodiment of ideas about nostalgia in L.M. Leonov’s novel Evgenia Ivanovna. The author reveals the origins of the physical and psychological malaise of the main character in her past and, sending her on a trip to the outskirts of the abandoned country, he confronts her again with a choice. Seeing her past in its true light, the woman realized the final break up with her motherland, mentally returned to real life and faced the future. The tragic ending of the story raises the question of the author’s premeditation, due to the fact that the depiction of the experiences of emigrants in literature met certain ideological functions, which gives grounds for raising the question of the formation of the myth of nostalgia in Russian literature of the Soviet period. The details of the author’s position become clearer when they are with the documentary material. The comparison of the story and Tyrkova-Williams’s memories is justified because of the above mentioned theme of nostalgia and the similarities between the plot and real life events. Her fate refutes many stereotypes, including the myth of nostalgia as a deadly disease. The nostalgic moods, recorded in her diaries and letters, and reproduced in her son’s memoirs did not dominate her family and social activities. The writer maintained spiritual ties with the people of her country, and homesickness was interpreted as a weakness which she overcame by loving not only the places where she was born and grew up, but also the history of the motherland, its culture, beliefs and traditions, carefully preserved in a foreign land, as well as a sincere disposition towards compatriots in need of help.

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