Reduction of romantic women's writing in A.K. Gertsyk's text “History of a friendship (Bettina Brentano and Karolina Vongunderrode)”

The article deals with the text of the Russian poetess of the Silver Age Adelaida Gertsyk “The Story of a Friendship (Bettina Brentano and Karoline v. Gunderrode)”, first published in 1915 in the second issue of the journal “Northern Notes”. Gertsyk’s reconstruction of the friendship between Bettina Brentano and Karoline von Gunderrode looks like a translation of fragments from Bettina von Arnim’s novel Gunderode (1840), accompanied by an introduction and commentary. However, Gertsyk’s text is a compilation of quotations from two novels by the romantic writer: Goethe’s Correspondence with a Child and Gunderode. Gertsyk makes a significant reduction of the novel Gunderode, its volume, problems, narrative practice of romantic women’s writing. Gertsyk eliminates the dialogue between Bettina and Karoline, which is the basis of equal interaction, a means of knowing oneself and the other. The article analyzes the problems of writing discussed by Bettina and Karoline in the novel Gunderode. The romantic understanding of friendship is compared with the image of friendship between two romantic writers, made of Adelaida Gertsyk. The Christian foundations of the worldview of Bettina von Arnim are revealed, which determine the problematics of the relationship between Self, You and Others. Self-determination in the novel Gunderode is associated with the independence of thinking and perception of the world. The social significance of Bettina’s book lies in the protest not only against stereotypes regarding the gender role of women, but also against other prejudices of contemporary German society, including its anti-Semitism. In comparison with Bettina’s book, Gertsyk’s text is a significant reduction of romantic women’s writing, both at the level of problems, and at the level of structure and narrative features.