Olha Kobylianska
Encyclopedia
Olha Julianivna Kobylianska ' onMouseout='HidePop("65960")' href="/topics/Gura_Humorului">Gura Humorului
, Bukovina
, Austro-Hungary - 21 March 1942 Cernăuţi
, Cernăuţi County
, Romania
) was a Ukrainian
modernist
writer
and feminist.
(Gura-Humora) in Bukovina
(now in Suceava County
, Romania
) in the family of a minor administration worker of Ukrainian noble decent from the Dnieper region. She was the fourth child of seven of Maria Werner and Julian Yakovych Kobyliansky. One of her distant relatives was the German poet Zacharias Werner
. Maria Werner was a Polonized German who was baptized a Greek Catholic and learned the local dialect of the Ukrainian language. One of Olha's brothers, Stepan Julianovych, became a painter-portraitist, another, Julian Julianovych, became a philologist and was the author of several textbooks in Latin
.
. She wrote her first works in German
, beginning in 1880. Besides a proficiency in German she spoke Ukrainian as well as Polish. Sometime in 1868 she moved with her family to Suceava
where her father accepted a job. There she met with Olha Ustyiamovych, the daughter of Ukrainian writer Mykola Ustyiamovych. In 1889 she moved to her mother's parents estate in the village of Dymka (today part of Hlyboka Raion, Chernivetska Oblast). In 1973 a museum was opened there in her memory.
Mykhailo Starytsky later wrote a play under the same name V nedilyu rano zillia kopala. That work was also translated into several languages. Later Kobylianska met and traveled with fellow Ukrainians such as Lesia Ukrainka, Ivan Franko
, Vasyl Stefanyk
, and Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky
, who influenced her cultural and political outlook. Together with other writers such as Marko Cheremshyna, Osyp Makovey, Katria Hrynevycheva, she described World War I
. Some of her stories of that period were Juda, The letter of a convicted soldier to his wife, and others.
and Friedrich Nietzsche
. Kobylianska was interested in the Ukrainian peasantry, and often wrote about the lives of these people. She depicted the struggle between good and evil and the mystical force of nature, predestination, magic, and the irrational in many of her stories of peasant life. 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. In 1944 a literary memorial museum
dedicated to her was opened in Chernivtsi, in the building in which she lived from 1938-1942.
One of her quotes
Gura Humorului
Gura Humorului is a town located in northern Romania, Suceava County in southern Bukovina. Until 1918 it was in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and formed a shtetl...
, Bukovina
Bukovina
Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
, Austro-Hungary - 21 March 1942 Cernăuţi
Chernivtsi
Chernivtsi is the administrative center of Chernivtsi Oblast in southwestern Ukraine. The city is situated on the upper course of the River Prut, a tributary of the Danube, in the northern part of the historic region of Bukovina, which is currently divided between Romania and Ukraine...
, Cernăuţi County
Cernauti County
Cernăuţi was a county of Romania, in Bukovina, with the capital city at Cernăuţi.-Neighbours:Neighbours of the county were Stanislawow Voivodship of Poland to the north and west, countries of Storojineţ and Dorohoi to the south and Hotin to the east...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
) was a Ukrainian
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
modernist
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and feminist.
Origin
Kobylianska was born in Gura HumoruluiGura Humorului
Gura Humorului is a town located in northern Romania, Suceava County in southern Bukovina. Until 1918 it was in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and formed a shtetl...
(Gura-Humora) in Bukovina
Bukovina
Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
(now in Suceava County
Suceava County
Suceava is a county of Romania, in the historical region of Moldavia and few villages in Transylvania, with the capital city at Suceava.- Demographics :...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
) in the family of a minor administration worker of Ukrainian noble decent from the Dnieper region. She was the fourth child of seven of Maria Werner and Julian Yakovych Kobyliansky. One of her distant relatives was the German poet Zacharias Werner
Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner
Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner was a German poet, dramatist, and preacher. As a dramatist, he is known mainly for inaugurating the era of the so-called “tragedies of fate.”-Biography:...
. Maria Werner was a Polonized German who was baptized a Greek Catholic and learned the local dialect of the Ukrainian language. One of Olha's brothers, Stepan Julianovych, became a painter-portraitist, another, Julian Julianovych, became a philologist and was the author of several textbooks in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
.
Early days
Kobylianska was mainly self-educated, receiving only four years of formal schooling in the German languageGerman language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. She wrote her first works in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, beginning in 1880. Besides a proficiency in German she spoke Ukrainian as well as Polish. Sometime in 1868 she moved with her family to Suceava
Suceava
Suceava is the Suceava County seat in Bukovina, Moldavia region, in north-eastern Romania. The city was the capital of the Principality of Moldavia from 1388 to 1565.-History:...
where her father accepted a job. There she met with Olha Ustyiamovych, the daughter of Ukrainian writer Mykola Ustyiamovych. In 1889 she moved to her mother's parents estate in the village of Dymka (today part of Hlyboka Raion, Chernivetska Oblast). In 1973 a museum was opened there in her memory.
Chernivtsi
In 1891 she moved to Chernivtsi. There she met Natalia Kobrynska (Ozarkevych), Doctor Sofia Okunevska, and fell in love with Kobrynska's brother, Dr. Yevhen Ozarkevych. In 1894 she became one of the initiators of the Association of Ruthenian Women in Bukovina, the program of which she included in her brochure Something about the idea of the feminist movement. One of her most prominent works which captured her political and social views was the novel Tsarivna (Princess), published in the Bukovina newspaper in 1895, as well as in other publications later. She later also wrote Arystokratka (1896), Impromptu phantasie, Valse melancolique (1898), and many others. Simultaneously, some of her poetic and prose works in the abstract-symbolic style were published in various local magazines such as Svit and Ukrainian Hut. Her other well known novels were Zemlya (Land, 1902) and V nedilyu rano zillia kopala (On Sunday Morning She Gathered Herbs, 1909). Of the latter, Vitaly Chernetsky wrote:The book's plot is based on a well-known Ukrainian folk song, "Oi ne khody, Hrytsiu..." ("O Don't Go Out, Hryts'..."). In it, a young man, Hryts', courts two young women simultaneously. One of the two women, in despair, poisons her beloved with an herb potion. Since the plot of the work is known to the reader in advance, attention is turned instead to its presentation: the narrative techniques employed, the description of nature, rural customs and rituals, and the additional subplots and details introduced by the author. The novel's plot is developed through the introduction of a new set of characters, nomadic Gypsies who move between [a rural area in the Ukrainian Carpathians] and the Hungarian plain and play a pivotal role in the text. This element of what contemporary cultural studies would term hybridity makes Kobylians'ka's novel stand out among the works of Ukrainian Modernists tackling folkloric themes.
Mykhailo Starytsky later wrote a play under the same name V nedilyu rano zillia kopala. That work was also translated into several languages. Later Kobylianska met and traveled with fellow Ukrainians such as Lesia Ukrainka, Ivan Franko
Ivan Franko
Ivan Yakovych Franko was a Ukrainian poet, writer, social and literary critic, journalist, interpreter, economist, political activist, doctor of philosophy, the author of the first detective novels and modern poetry in the Ukrainian language....
, Vasyl Stefanyk
Vasyl Stefanyk
Vasyl' Semenovych Stefanyk was a classical Ukrainian prose writer and political activist. He was a member of the Austrian parliament 1908-1918....
, and Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky
Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky
Mykhailo Mykhailovych Kotsiubynsky , was a Ukrainian author whose writings described typical Ukrainian life at the start of the 20th century...
, who influenced her cultural and political outlook. Together with other writers such as Marko Cheremshyna, Osyp Makovey, Katria Hrynevycheva, she described World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Some of her stories of that period were Juda, The letter of a convicted soldier to his wife, and others.
Style of writing
Her writings were influenced by George SandGeorge Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...
and Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
. Kobylianska was interested in the Ukrainian peasantry, and often wrote about the lives of these people. She depicted the struggle between good and evil and the mystical force of nature, predestination, magic, and the irrational in many of her stories of peasant life. 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. In 1944 a literary memorial museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
dedicated to her was opened in Chernivtsi, in the building in which she lived from 1938-1942.
One of her quotes