Literary alter ego of Avdotya Panayeva: autobiographical roots of the image of Anya in the novel "The Dead Lake"

The subject of the study in this article is the phenomenon of literary alter ego in the work of Avdotya Yakovlevna Panayeva, examined through the image of the main character Anya in the novel "The Dead Lake" (1851), co-written with N.A. Nekrasov. The article focuses on identifying and analyzing the autobiographical roots of this character, exploring the mechanisms of artistic transformation of the writer's personal experience into narrative conflicts and the character's traits. The study encompasses not only direct biographical parallels but also the strategies through which Panayeva, as a female author in the patriarchal literary field of the mid-19th century, used the artistic text to legitimize her own nonconformist life and creative choices, turning a private story into a universal statement about women's freedom. The research is based on a synthesis of biographical methods, gender approaches, and comparative analysis aimed at reconstructing the author's intention and artistic strategy. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the targeted analysis of Anya's image not as a typical socio-psychological type of the era, but as a consciously created literary alter ego of Panayeva. This allows the novel to be reconsidered not only in the context of social issues but also as a tool for deep personal self-reflection and debate. The study concludes that through Anya's fate (despotic childhood, escape from a marriage of convenience, theatrical career, experience of betrayal, and gaining strength), Panayeva artistically reflects on key milestones of her own biography, including complex marital relationships, a civil union with Nekrasov, and the struggle for professional realization in "Sovremennik." Thus, the novel emerges as a complex project of artistic autobiography, where personal experience serves as the foundation for asserting a woman's right to creative and personal self-determination.