A.M. GORKY INSTITUTE OF WORLD LITERATURE
Issues
Elena Guro’s Letters and Literary Works: Deconstruction of the Writer’s Autobiographical Myth
- DOI:
- EDN:
- УДК / UDK: 821.161.1.0
- Publication Type: Research Article
- Received: 21.11.2024
- Approved after reviewing: 16.06.2025
- Date of publication: 25.12.2025
- Issue:
no. 4 (38), 2025
- Abstract:
The article deals with the problem of distinguishing between Elena Guro’s life and her autobiographical myth that has replaced the real biography of writer and artist (who thought of herself as a mother, protector, and comforter) in various reviews and studies. It revises factual errors found in biographical dictionaries and exhibition catalogues. The study is based on epistolary from Guro’s fund located in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art — mainly it is her letters to Mikhail Matyushin and her sister Ekaterina as well as her mother’s letters, — most of the materials is first published. It also addresses Guro’s works such as The Hurdy-Gurdy (1909), Autumnal Dream (1912), The Little Camels of the Sky (1914), and unfinished The Poor Knight story. In addition to reconstructing the chronology of the relationship between Guro and Matyushin: their acquaintance (1900), the beginning of their love story (1901), Matyushin’s divorce from Maria Patzak (1903), his marriage to Guro (1904), and the relationship crisis provoked by Matyushin’s fling with another woman (1907) that served as an impetus for Guro’s works — the article highlights her negative perception about childhood and motherhood. It concludes that the central character in her writings, unborn son Wilhelm von Notenberg, was not triggered by her desire to become a mother. Indeed, he symbolizes that very crisis born out of Matyushin’s teaching ambition and some unrealized idea of a cocreated artwork that was vaguely mentioned in their correspondence. Also, it is assumed that Matyushin’s spread of the posthumous myth about Guro was primarily due to his urge to justify himself for the adulterous relationship with her as shown in publishable letters.
- Keywords: Elena Guro, Mikhail Matyushin, biography, autobiographical myth, epistolary, the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, art in the early 20th century, Russian avant-garde.
- For citation:
Kozhachkina, D.N. “Elena Guro’s Letters and Literary Works: Deconstruction of the Writer’s Autobiographical Myth.” Literaturnyi fakt, no. 4 (38), 2025, pp. 197–234. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-8297-2025-38-197-234
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