Identity Crisis in Maria Stepanova’s The Disappearing Act

Abstract

This article interprets Maria Stepanova’s The Disappearing Act (2024) as a literary exploration of a crisis of selfhood triggered by war, emigration, and the collapse of established forms of national and cultural identification. It examines the figure of the writer-protagonist, who seeks to distance herself from the ethical and political burdens associated with Russianness. Particular attention is devoted to the destabilization of the self, manifested in alienation, the loss of biographical continuity, and the tension between individual self-definition and communal belonging. The discussion also addresses a network of intertextual references and cultural codes, including children’s literature, motifs of circus and illusion, nomadism, and allusions to the Russian literary tradition. Special significance is attached to the motifs of disappearance, performance, and symbolic death, understood as imagined forms of withdrawal from imposed social roles. The article argues that the protagonist’s attempts to transcend her biography and escape the burdens of collective identification ultimately prove unsuccessful.