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Why Did Anna Go to the Opera? : The Question of Authenticity in Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina

University of British Columbia. Department of Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies

Many interpreters commend Leo Tolstoy for substantiating feminist positions in Anna Karenina. The critics argue that, despite his intentions to depict Anna negatively, Tolstoy has created an admirable heroine who challenges 19th-century social norms. Anna is thus to be admired for her moral integrity, as she leaves her husband to live openly with her lover in order to be true to herself. In this talk, Baraban argues the opposite: Anna’s affair leads to the loss of her self-acceptance and authenticity. An analysis of key scenes and narrative techniques reveals that Tolstoy’s title character both plays a role of an ill-fated adulterous woman and acts like a theatre director in relation to other characters. Whereas in Joe Wright’s 2012 screen adaptation of Anna Karenina theatricality is used to blame society for Anna’s demise, in the narrative by Tolstoy, the motifs of role-playing and theatre help to contrast authentic and inauthentic characters, underscoring the heroes’ responsibility for their actions.

eng

2025-03-27

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/90538

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/