ABSTRACT
Viktoriia Tokareva graduated from music school and taught singing before entering the Cinematography Institute with the hope of becoming an actress. She majored in screen writing and was soon so enthralled by that dimension of creativity that she abandoned her desire to become a star.! Russian literature is the better for that decision. Her fIrst published collection of stories appeared in 1969, and she continues to comment on the human condition in a creative and captivating way. In great measure her concerns and perceptions are the same now as they were in the 1960s, thereby suggesting that current literary concerns are not unlike those of the second half of this century generally. For convenience of discussion, however, her work may be divided into three periods: the early Tokareva, dating from the 1960s and early 1970s; the middle Tokareva, dating mostly from the 1970s; and the late or glasnost' Tokareva, dating from the early 1980s. As phases in the lives of writers and movements generally do, these three periods in Tokareva's writing overlap, suggesting evolution rather than distinct phases.
