Gloria Politi

This paper aims to develop a comparative analysis between The Girlo from the Metropol Hotel: Growing Up in Communist Russia by Lyudmila The Time of Women by Elena Chizhova. The protagonists of both works are women: mothers, daughters, roommates, preys. They do not escape reality, they do not find refuge in an idyllic and dreamy world but, on the contrary, they face the present with a revolutionary flair, trying to unhinge the coordinates of a society, the Soviet society, which was male-dominated and extremely oppressive towards women. Fate, for these creatures, is no longer inescapable but, by opposing it like modern Antigones, changing the warp like new Moires, they alter its result. These women are therefore laborious creatures; their work is constant, intense, and does not give way to doubt or to the temptation to be overwhelmed by events that, historically, are of exceptional magnitude. In short, they are divine female figures, creative and positive, as if to underline the primary role they play in the cosmic and social order. There are many parallels between the two narratively very different works: the principle of rebellion, the mythopoetic strategies or the apocryphalisation of myth, evident above all in the "weaving" activity of the protagonists. It is precisely the process of weaving the story of existence, transgressing unfair rules imposed by a millenary anti-feminist tradition, that also becomes a metaphor for writing. The authors use memory, each in their own way, transforming it often into a family memory or even into the 'myth of a family memory', even in social contexts where characters are not bound by blood ties. Memory and the concept of which the authors make "use" reveal the eternal conflict between the individual and society, the contrast between feeling and rationality, between individual and the collective interests, the theme and mystery of physical and mental pain.