The Specifics of the First Female Biographies in the 17th-century Russian Official Discourse

Abstract

This article is based upon the surprising deficiency of philological studies dedicated to the examination of the first female biographical descriptions that there in abundance in the Russian official discourse of the 17th century. Indeed, these early works reflect fundamental functions attributed to the lives of mediaeval women and depict family connections, locations, class affiliations, fiscal standings, and the legal rights to inherited property and assets. Likewise, we witness a limited choice of female occupations and their dreadful living conditions throughout tragic historical Russian epochs. These external facts, when combined with the incarnate use of applicable female proper names in the official discourse, give a new life to limited-gender terms such as maid, wife, mother, sister, daughter-in-law, widow, and midwife.

This gender terminology played a specific-marker role in first female biographical descriptions, replacing the use of the women’s actual first names with their function as maid, wife, sister, mother, etc.

To complete such tasks, goals, and functions are evident in their use in the original manuscripts found in Russian and Swedish archives and also previously published as official sources from the 17th century in the history of Volgograd, Novgorod, Tver, and Yaroslavl. This broad linguistic context allowed us to see and analyse the written processes in the formation and depiction of the first female biographical descriptions, some traits of which are still seen in modern Russian.

The historical-linguistic materials presented in my article might have been useful in the 17th-century Russian Language Courses as well as interdisciplinary studies examining Slavic onomastic and mediaeval gender theories and studies.