The concept of women’s happiness in the novel War’s Unwomanly Face by Svetlana Alexievich

Abstract

This article is dedicated to an analysis of the issue of women’s „happiness” in the novel War’s Unwomanly Face by Svetlana Alexievich. The literary career of the author and her image in the eyes of literary critics are described in the introduction. The historical development of the definition of the very term „happiness” is then presented based on works by philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato, Thomas Aquinas and Jeremy Bentham. Attention is also paid to the absence – up to the 20th century – of the female perspective on this issue in worldwide literature and philosophy. Then, the documentary War’s Unwomanly Face is analysed and interpreted in the context of deliberations on the philosophy of „happiness”, love, friendship and femininity.