title: Body or soul: representing lesbians in post-soviet Russian culture.
abstract: This article examines representations of lesbians in contemporary Russian literature and film as expressions of a host of post-Soviet anxieties over the social, political, and economic turmoil following the fall of communism. In particular, the author examines three recurrent motifs: the lesbian as narcissist; the lesbian as prostitute; and the lesbian as predator. While many authors and filmmakers present these qualities as a threat to the (patriarchal) social order, others celebrate those very attributes as a liberating alternative to the narrow roles traditionally available to Russian women, which stress their qualities of maternal love and self-sacrifice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies, Kent State University Kent, OH 44242, USA. bbaer@kent.edu
authors.forename: Brian James
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Baer
mesh_terms: D003148:Communism; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D018452:Homosexuality, Female; D006801:Humans; D012426:Russia; D012931:Social Environment; D012933:Social Identification; D013240:Stereotyping