“Night Witch”, Warrior Maiden, Soviet Woman: The Image of a Military Pilot in the Literature of Socialist Realism (M. Chechneva <i>My Fighting Friends</i>)

Abstract

Purpose. The article analyses the image of a military pilot in Soviet memoir literature. A lot of research works were devoted to the study of Soviet literature and its figurative system, but no special works have been found that focus on this character. The research material is a book of essays by M. Chechneva My Battle Friends (1968). The author used the method of mythopoetic analysis, as well as a structural-typological approach.Results. The work substantiates a typological similarity between a pilot and a warrior maiden at the characterological, gender, mythopoetic, allusive, and nominative levels. The study revealed significant elements of the image of a military pilot and associated motives – revenge, delayed marriage. These motifs refer to the inherent gender inversion in such plots, highlight the masculinity of the heroines, a characteristic of the type of female warrior. The image under the study is intertextually connected with Russian epic heroines, which allows us to talk about the traditional nature of the type itself. The semantics of the nomination “night witches” is also analyzed, which paradoxically takes on positive connotations. In addition, specific socialist realist layers were found in the model under consideration – the heroines are characterized by such qualities as discipline, rigor, and calmness.Conclusion. The image of a military pilot fits into the paradigm of the warrior maiden type, but has some peculiarities. This is due to the artistic method within which the author of the essays worked, as well as to the time of writing the works.