On Sunday Morning She Gathered Herbs - Softcover

Olha Kobylianska; Mary Skrypnyk; Maxim Tarnawsky (Introduction)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1895571340 ISBN 13: 9781895571349

Publisher: University of Alberta Press, 2022

Synopsis

The novel is based on the traditional Ukrainian folk song "Oi, ne khody Hrytsiu". The tragic story of a young man torn between two women and poisoned by one of them lends itself readily to literary interpretations. But in Kobylianska's interpretation, this is far more than a melodramatic love story with a predictable ending. It is not merely the love story of Tetiana and Hryts: it is a story of the eternal conflict between passion and reason, between personal happiness and social constraints, between freedom and its practical limitations. Kobylianska turns the love story into a feminist exploration of the psychology of two strong women, Tetiana and her mentor (and Hryts's mother) Mavra. Like figures in a classical Greek tragedy, Kobylianska's characters move in a graceful, stylized narrative ballet toward their inevitable fate, leading the reader into an ever-deepening thematic exploration of human emotions and social conventions.

About this title

About the Author:

Olha Kobylianska (1863-1942) was one of Ukraine's most prominent modernist novelists. A self-educated and well-read woman, she wrote her first stories in German. Her friendships with prominent Ukrainians, including Lesia Ukrainka, Natalia Kobrynska, and Osyp Makovei, changed her cultural outlook. She became involved in the Ukrainian women's movement and began writing in Ukrainian. Her early works, including the novels Liudyna (A Person, 1891) and Tsarivna (The Princess, 1895), depict cultured, emancipated women oppressed in a philistine, provincial society. They show a distinct Nietzschean influence. Her later works, including Zemlia (The Land, 1902) and V nediliu rano zillia kopala (On Sunday Morning She Gathered Herbs, 1909), temper the autobiographical individualism of her earlier works with lyrical descriptiveness and superb narrative control.

Review:

"... the appearance of this volume is both timely and welcome." Vitaly Chernetsky -- Slavic and East European Journal, vol. 46, no. 3 (Fall 2003)

"... the appearance of this volume is both timely and welcome." Vitaly Chernetsky -- Slavic and East European Journal, vol. 46, no. 3 (Fall 2003)

"You won't regret the time spent immersing yourself in the world of Budovynian life, loves and drama." Myron Shatulsky -- The Ukrainian-Canadian Herald, (May 2001)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Alberta Press
• Publication date: 2022
• ISBN 10: 1895571340
• ISBN 13: 9781895571349
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 180