person
Natalya Stepanovna ("Kisochka")
Kisochka
also: Наталья Степановна, Кисочка, Natalya Stepanovna, Kitty
A former schoolgirl infatuation of Ananyev's, now an unhappily married woman in his home town, in "Lights" (1888); nicknamed Kisochka ("Kitty") for the kittenish gentleness Ananyev remembers from her adolescence. Ananyev seduces and abandons her within a single feverish night during a chance reunion, and his narrative recounts his own casual, calculating cruelty toward her with unsparing honesty.
Reading notes
- Lights §54 This was Natalya Stepanovna, or, as she was called, Kisochka
"Kisochka" (Кисочка) is a diminutive of "kis-kis," the sound used in Russian to call a cat, roughly equivalent to "Kitty"; the nickname was given to her as a schoolgirl for the kittenish gentleness Ananyev recalls in loc 54-58, and its childish, pettable connotation runs through the story as an index of how much of her Ananyev still sees as an object to be handled rather than a person -- most explicitly at loc 98 and loc 136, where the sight of her older, sadder face still calls up in him the wish "to stroke her like a cat."
Mentioned in 3 works (80 mentions)
Lights
- §43 Natalya Stepanovna
- §54 Natalya Stepanovna
- §55 Kisochka
- §56 Kisochka
- §58 Kisochka
- §59 Natalya Stepanovna
- §62 Kisochka
- §63 Kisochka
- §65 Kisochka
- §67 Kisochka
- §68 Kisochka
- §72 Kisochka
- §73 Kisochka
- §74 Natalya Stepanovna
- §76 Kisochka
- §77 Kisochka
- §79 Kisochka
- §80 Kisochka
- §81 Kisochka
- §82 Kisochka
- §86 Kisochka
- §87 Kisochka
- §89 Kisochka
- §90 Kisochka
- §91 Kisochka
- §95 Kisochka
- §96 Kisochka
- §98 Kisochka
- §103 Kisochka
- §104 Kisochka
- §109 Kisochka
- §113 Kisochka
- §114 Kisochka
- §116 Kisochka
- §117 Kisochka
- §119 Kisochka
- §120 Kisochka
- §121 Kisochka
- §122 Kisochka
- §124 Kisochka
- §129 Kisochka
- §132 Kisochka
- §133 Kisochka
- §134 Kisochka
- §136 Kisochka
- §138 Kisochka
- §139 Kisochka
- §141 Kisochka
- §143 Kisochka
- §145 Kisochka
- §146 Kisochka
- §147 Kisochka
- §150 Kisochka
- §151 Kisochka
- §152 Kisochka
- §159 Kisochka
- §160 Kisochka
- §164 Kisochka
- §165 Kisochka
- §168 Kisochka
- §169 Kisochka
- §178 Kisochka
- §204 Kisochka
To A. S. Suvorin, 30 May 1888. Sumy.
The Proposal
- §26 Natalya Stepanovna
- §41 Natalya Stepanovna
- §48 Natalya Stepanovna
- §54 Natalya Stepanovna
- §59 Natalya Stepanovna
- §63 Natalya Stepanovna
- §67 Natalya Stepanovna
- §71 Natalya Stepanovna
- §73 Natalya Stepanovna
- §79 Natalya Stepanovna
- §190 Natalya Stepanovna
- §202 Natalya Stepanovna
- §210 Natalya Stepanovna
- §297 Natalya Stepanovna
- §298 Natalya Stepanovna