Ljudmila Ulickajaʼs Sonečka: Gender and the Construction of Identity

In interviews Liudmila Ulitskaia has repeatedly stated her view that biological differences between the sexes inevitably map onto social relations. The construction of identity for both male and female characters in Ulitskaiaʼs 1992 novella Sonechka may be approached from a Chodorowian perspective in which females define themselves in life “relationally”, that is, in connection to and with an awareness of others around them, while males define themselves “oppositionally”, separating themselves from role models and peers. Although Ulitskaia defines and differentiates among various female and male constructions of identity in Sonechka, she does not reject or negate any of them.