Falsification of content: decadence and simplification as the extreme forms of internal protest of the heroines of M. V. Krestovskaya’s novella “The Outcry”

This article examines novella by Maria Krestovskaya “The Outcry” (1900) in the context of reception of the phenomenon of decadence in Russian literature of turn of the XIX – XX centuries. This novella by the mostly forgotten writer, who in her works refers mostly to the female topics (love, family, and profession), is currently of particular interest from the perspective of reflection of cultural trends of that time. A “typical female story” about the unhappy marriage, aimed against the power of money, insincerity and lack of freedom, puts decadence to the forefront of narration as a cultural emblem of the era, revealing the inner motifs and mechanism, which led one of the heroines to an ostentatiously decadent behavior. A contrasts form of protest against the bourgeois world in the novella is the ideology of simplification. The scientific novelty of the conducted research is defined by paucity of research on the works of M. V. Krestovskaya, and absence of special works within the modern literary studies dedicated to her writing heritage. The author’s contribution consists in introduction of novella “The Outcry” into the extensive Russian-European cultural and historical-literary context, as well as its analysis from the perspective of worldview trends and aesthetic influences of the late XIX – early XX centuries. The research proves that this text, which is not the only resort of M. V. Krestovskaya to a new type of here of the “end of century”, can be justifiably attributed to the body of work devoted to the heroes-decadents.