LOVE STORIES OF THE MODERN AGE. LARYSA KOSACH, OLHA KOBYLIANSKA: REFLECTIONS

Abstract

The paper highlights the key events of the private life of Larysa Kosach and Olha Kobylianska. It focuses on their communication and relations with men (acquaintance, friendship, and love), in particular Serhii Merzhynskyi and Osyp Makovei. The practice of behavior, the emotional and sensual experience of the Ukrainian women from the modern era have been revealed in a comparative aspect. This approach is determined by the special spiritual and sisterly connection between Larysa and Olha, as well as similar stages of experiencing the love feeling. The emphasis is made on the ‘history’ of L. Kosach, which is explained and even duplicated in the ‘history’ of Olha Kobylyanska. A general shaping of the writers’ personalities has been also considered comparatively. The cultural, psychological, and gender aspects in Ukraine of the late 19th and early 20th centuries had to be taken into account. The typology of both personalities has been traced from the time of their adolescence till their adulthood. The author of the paper pays special attention to the social norms as the oldest way to keep a woman within her nature as it was imagined. The traumatic experience of such social representation and the ways of addressing the issue within literary and autobiographical works are highlighted as well. The problem of expressing oneself is an important psychobiographical factor here. All private and public profiles related to human individuality, female nature, and creative consciousness are worth taking a deeper look at. The break up with the authorities, being a dominant feature for these women, is important for each of the mentioned manifestations of personalities and their integrity. The researcher concludes that biographical material, when properly structured, opens up new perspectives for those focused on the life and creative paths of the famous Ukrainian female writers.