Temporary marriage as Russian literary pattern in the 19th - early 20th century

The paper deals with the subject of temporary marriage between Russian sailors and Japanese women in fictional and non-fictional literature. The literary pattern of temporary marriage includes time limitation of the marriage, the language or/and cultural barrier and the man’s leaving at the end. The time limitation sometimes makes one or both spouses consider this marriage as legal, but “not true.” There are two main variants of the pattern in Russian travel notes of the 19th - early 20th century. The first is the positive one (A. Krasnov, D. Schreider, and N. Bartoshewsky). Both husband and wife are kind-hearted people, their family life is pure and real, although they do not entirely understand each other’s language. The second is the negative one (F. Knorring, D. Armfelt, G. de Vollan, and Vinogradov). Husband and wife are both pragmatic, rational, and cold, with the whole tradition turning into a sort of prostitution and insincere comedy. The plot variants, with one of the spouses being pragmatic, mercantile and cruel, and another loving, faithful, and suffering, are not common. Yuzhakov’s travel notes include such a rare case. The asymmetrical variant was more popular in Western fiction (Madame Butterfly). Russian fiction prefers the positive variant of the pattern. In short stories by D. Persky and M. Volkonsky, the authors transform the motives from Madame Chrysanthème by P. Loti and Madame Butterfly by J. L. Long by showing the Russians as noble people and achieving a happy end wherever possible.

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