Aleksandrova Halyna

Lesya Ukrainka and Ivan Steshenko: biographical contexts of communication by epistolary and memories of contemporaries

Section: Contexts of Lesya Ukrainka’s biographical world: A view from the 21st century

Abstract: The aim of the research is to consider and analyze through the prism of Lesya Ukrainka’s epistolary and memoirs of her contemporaries the nature and peculiarities of her relations with Ivan Steshenko (1874-1918) – a writer, literary critic, and public and political figure. In this article we use general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis based on the principles of historicism and objectivity. Chronological and system methods are also used. The scientific novelty of the work is that for the first time the object of research were the letters of Lesya Ukrainka to M. Drahomanov, O. Lutsky, O. P. Kosach (mother), O. P. Kosach (sister), M. Kryvyniuk, in which Ivan Steshenko is mentioned, and the memoirs of M. Voronoi, S. Yefremov, Olena Pchilka, L. Starytska-Chernyakhivska, O. Steshenko, O. Tulub, E. Chykalenko, which talk about their communication; its specifics are clarified and the most important topics and problems are generalized. Lesya Ukrainka’s epistolary legacy, Ivan Steshenko’s letters, memoirs of contemporaries testify to the close relations of these figures, constant attention to each other’s work. Based on the letters, the pages of their cooperation in the field of literature and in the field of public and political activity were reproduced. Conclusions. It is proved that the epistolary of Lesya Ukrainka and the memoirs of her contemporaries are a valuable source not only for understanding her biography, but also for studying the creative individuality of her friend I. Steshenko. According to the letters of Lesya Ukrainka and Ivan Steshenko, their creative, domestic and business contacts were quite close and related to their literary interests and political views. The epistolary is an important source that reveals the biographical contexts of communication of these individuals against the background of important socio-cultural and psychological changes in society in the late ХІХ – early ХХ century.

Keywords: Lesya Ukrainka, Ivan Steshenko, biography, epistolary, memoirs, literature, politics, translation, “Pleiades”.

  Full-text PDF    https://doi.org/10.15407/ub.21.120     Citation

• Aleksandrova Halyna (Institute of Biographical Research of VNLU (Kyiv, Ukraine), [email protected]) ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5136-5160

Cite:
Aleksandrova Halyna (2021). Lesya Ukrainka and Ivan Steshenko: biographical contexts of communication by epistolary and memories of contemporaries. Biographistica Ukrainica, (21) 120-143. (In Ukrainan). https://doi.org/10.15407/ub.21.120

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