The image of the rusalka-drowned maiden in Russian romantic literature

This article discusses the literary image of the rusalka-drowned maiden in the literary works of Russian Romanticism. In order to describe the image of the rusalka in Russian Romanticism, the author first defines the features the folklore rusalka image, further comparing it with the literary rusalka with the original source, and analyzes their similarities and differences. As a result of that procedure, it becomes evident that the literary rusalka has distinctive folkloric features in it. In addition, literary works where the rusalka appears can be divided into two types: the first one lacks the inside world of the rusalka, whereas the second one describes it in detail. The author of this article focuses on the following three works - A.S. Pushkin’s “Rusalka” (1932), O.M. Somov’s “Rusalka. The Southern Russia Legend” (1829), and N.V. Gogol’s “May Night, or the Drowned Maiden” (1831), all of them having the female protagonist getting drowned. By help of this motif, borrowed from the folklore and later revisited by Romanticists, the gils transcend from the earthly world (the world of the living) to the underwater world (the world of the dead), thus metamorphosing into the rusalka. That signifies their absolution from the “order” which stand here for the hierarchy of human relations. By transforming themselves into the rusalka, the girls make themselves free from the “order” they used to obey when they were human beings.