Ewolucja postaci kobiecych w dark academia – od całkowitego podporządkowania do indywidualizmu i niezależności

Abstract

The theme of my article is the analysis of changes of the representations of female characters in dark academia literature over the years. I will refer to books that could be named „The Bible” of dark academia: Dead Poets Society by Nancy Kleinbaum, The secret history by Donna Tartt and If we were villains by M.L. Rio. I will show, the aspects of the feminity authors concentrated on and how the perception of women’s role in romantic relationships has changed in dark academia literature. I will specifically focus on characters of: Chris, Camilla and Meredith. Accordingly to spirit of the dark academia I will describe possible inspirations of the authors in the process of creating these female characters as Greek goddesses. I will show that in the last two novels women are not, as in the first novel, only passive „beauty details”. Camilla and Meredith are the true participants of the novels’ events, with their own desires, who are making independent choices. I will also point out that the characters whom I am describing have evolved in their ways of reacting to the situations of pushing their individual boundaries: from lack of any action and submission (Chris) to the active resistance (Meredith). To sum up I will consider the possible influence of the online users (readers) on the process of the evolution of the female characters in the dark academia novels.