The Dissolution of Patriarchy and Female Image in Yuri Olesha’s “Envy”

This study analyzes the significance of the ‘grotesque house’ in Soviet Socialist Realism novels of the 1920s through Yuri Olesha’s “Envy” (1927). In Soviet culture of the time, the traditional concept of house as a ‘nest’ was politically unacceptable, and under the influence of Soviet ideology, individuals’ ideological maturity was evaluated based on their attitude toward home, family, and domestic values. The research reveals that Olesha depicted the dissolution of traditional family structures and the introduction of new socialist values through grotesque characters. Through the androgynization of major male characters (the ambiguous gender identity of Andrei Babichev and Kavalerov), he portrayed the crisis of traditional masculinity. Through female characters (Valya and Anechka Prokopovich), he expressed the transitional characteristics between traditional femininity and the emerging socialist feminine ideal. This study differs from previous research that primarily focused on the conflict between male characters by paying particular attention to the role of female characters, thereby suggesting new interpretive possibilities. Through the transformation of the concept of ‘house,’ the novel symbolically demonstrates Soviet social changes where private spheres were increasingly absorbed into public domains. The study shows how Olesha effectively portrayed the discord and confusion of this transformative process through grotesque imagery and situations, revealing the underlying tensions in early Soviet society's reconstruction of gender roles and family structures.