2026 # 3 (77)
Bazanova E.V., Kluchnikov K.V.
Poetics and Themes of Contemporary Women’s Prose: E. Jabbarova’s Novel “The Hands of the Women in My Family Were Not Meant for Writing”
Abstract
The article examines the poetics and themes of Egana Jabbarova’s novel The Hands of the Women in My Family Were Not Meant for Writing (2024) in the context of such phenomena as “women’s prose” and “poet’s prose”. The aim of the work is to identify the artistic originality of the book, determined by the synthesis of autofictional narrative, poetic imagery, and feminist optics. The analysis explores the category of corporeality, which is central to the work: the body is interpreted by the author as a physical object, a metaphysical entity, and a carrier of generational memory opposing patriarchal tradition. Special attention is paid to the non-linear composition, built on the principle of apparent fragmentation (each chapter is devoted to a part of the body), and the rhythmic organization of the text, including anaphoric constructions and leitmotivic “rhymes”. The connection between Jabbarova’s prose and the traditions of synthetic prose by A. Bely and M. Tsvetaeva is substantiated, and the interaction of verbal and auditory planes (language as a sign system and as an organ) is considered. The study concludes that the novel represents a complex mega-mythical canvas, where a macrocosm of female destiny – free from national and patriarchal prohibitions – is constructed through somatic experience.
Key words
women’s prose, poet’s prose, corporeality, E. Jabbarova, “The Hands of the Women in My Family Were Not Meant for Writing”, autofiction