A pioneering Ukrainian modernist writer; sister of Yuliian Kobyliansky. A self-educated and well-read woman, her first novellen were written in German, beginning in 1880. From 1891 she lived in Chernivtsi. Her travels and acquaintance with Lesia Ukrainka, Nataliia Kobrynska, Osyp Makovei, Ivan Franko, Vasyl Stefanyk, and Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky changed her cultural and political outlook, and she became involved in the Ukrainian women's movement in Bukovyna and began writing in Ukrainian. Many of her works鈥攊ncluding the novels Liudyna (A Person, 1891) and Tsarivna (The Princess, 1895)鈥攈ave as their protagonists cultured, emancipated women oppressed in a philistine, provincial society; semiautobiographical elements and the influence of the writings of George Sand and Friedrich Nietzsche are evident. A neoromantic symbolist, she depicted the struggle between good and evil and the mystical force of nature (eg, the short story 鈥楤ytva鈥� [Battle]), predestination, magic, and the irrational in many of her stories of peasant life and in her most famous novels, Zemlia (Land, 1902) and V nediliu rano zillia kopala (On Sunday Morning She Gathered Herbs, 1909). Her works are known for their impressionistic, lyrical descriptions of nature and subtle psychological portrayals.
Kobylianska's works have been published in many editions and selections. The fullest collections were published in 1927鈥�9 (9 vols) and 1962鈥�3 (5 vols). In 1944 a literary memorial museum dedicated to her was opened in Chernivtsi.
This is a classic Ukrainian novel by . It is titled Land was initially published in 1902 and is one of the texts that are part of a school program these days. A lot of pupils (and former pupils) complain that Ukrainian 19th and early 20th-century literature is about serfs, rural life and suffering. While it isn鈥檛 exactly so (as it is less than 录 of works, from poems to novels), there are still quite a few 鈥� after all authors were often activists, who wished to help Ukrainians as people and over 90% of them lived in rural areas and a sizable proportion were serfs, which is slavery under another name. This book is exactly one that has both rural life and suffering, but it has much more.
I鈥檝e read it now because this year I plan to read more of Ukrainian classics, so I took (Ukr) and decided to go through the list as it is composed, i.e. chronologically. This is the #10 in the list and the first 20th century work by a woman (and 2nd 20th century work in general).
The book starts by outlining the setting: there is a village, Dymka with the lord's forest in its western part. Initially, the story follows a relatively well-off landlady Dokiya Chopiak. She has only daughter Parasyna, whom she wants to marry off as soon as possible because she feels unwell and fears that she鈥檒l die soon, while her husband Vasyl is a drunkard and may leave her daughter with nothing, squandering what they have. Parasyna is a village's #1 beauty, and the best groom for her would be the most handsome village guy Mykhailo Fedorchuk. A bonus is that, Mykhailo鈥檚 father owns lands bordering Dokiya鈥檚. However, Mykhailo will be conscripted to the army for three years, so Dokia settles on the son of another wealthy villager and quickly settles the marriage.
Then we shift to the main characters of the novel: Mykhailo and his younger brother Sava, their parents, a wealthy peasant named Ivonika, and his wife Maria. Parents worked hard to get their land, and they hope that their sons would also work on this land鈥� here we find out that Mykhailo works hard and follows everything his parents order, while Sava prefers hunting to working land. Moreover, he is in love with Rakhira, who is his aunt's daughter (i.e. his cousin) and moreover, of 鈥済ypsy seed鈥�, thus parents are very unhappy with his choice, which leads to constant scandals. Here it is important to note that the author greatly follows different points of view, so e.g. outsiders see Maria as stingy, while she denies herself and others anything just to leave everything to their sons.
The story has a lot of magic realism and symbolism, giving a great glimpse into the beliefs of illiterate religious peasants, for whom what a fortune teller says is the truth, where curses are real鈥�
The novel is strong, but at the same time it is nigh impossible to enjoy the story, for everyone suffers - Ivonika and Maria suffer for conscripted Mykhailo, Sava suffers that the parents clearly prefer his older brother, Mykhailo suffers in the army and uprooted from land鈥� and suffering only grows as the story progresses.