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DOVZHENKO’S (1894—1956) WOMEN AND WAR An Analysis o f Olexander Dovzhenko's " N otebooks" (1941— 1946) by Dr. HELENE TURKEWICZ-SANKO John Carroll University "The most terrible thing during the retreat was the women's crying. When I think of that retreat now, I see endless roads, and countless villages, and everywhere the unspeakable crying of women. Ukraine w epf. O. Dovzhenko, Notebooks (1942) Earth, Dovzhenko’s 1930 cinematographic produc tion, presents images of men and women caught in the midst of change; however, during the most crucial years of World War II, Dovzhenko thinks especially of women, his main preoccupation, as he himself notes in the first pages of his diary of 1941: “A great and unusual theme: the Ukrainian women and the war”. In fact, his Note books of the years 1941—1946 represent the views of a writer and filmmaker who is assigned to the front as a newspaper correspondent, and who never ceases to see the world around him with the eyes of an artist and a poet. The pages of his N otebooks offer the reader a vision of the universe at its worst — at war — and, in the midst of it, the women. In his N otebooks Dovzhenko records people’s reac tions to the war. The author’s personal views on women include three types: Mother, Wife, and Sister. Being a man of his times, he is prepared to praise the ordinary woman as well the famous heroine of Ukraine’s past. He mentions, side by side, the exploits of Hanna Koshova, who is recognized by the Socialist Labor Party for her work in the sugar fields, and famous heroines such as Yaroslavna, a woman from the medieval Tale of Prince Ihor, or Katerina, the female character of the poem by the ХІХ-th century poet Taras Shevchenko. The com mon bond between these women is their tears. It is the men who fight wars. But even in the most dislocating moments of the battle, men are in some kind of communication with an immediate superior and they are kept in touch with the military corps through a chain of command. Women are not for they are isolated and thus doubly victimized. In his Notebooks of 1941, Dovzhenko sets out to consider the fate of the woman and to be her voice. His hasty notes are like sketches for a complete work dedicated to Her as Mother, Wife and Sister, themes which haunt him. The filmmaker in Dovzhenko presents possible frames for his next movie about the war, yet, in 1946, his intent is clearly not to show its horrors, but to show the magnitude of invinci ble human strenght and beauty: In art, way must be shown by war of beauty, keeping in mind the nobility of personal human actions in wartime. Any other depiction of war would be senseless. This is a paradox, one of the greatest paradoxes in human history. Notebooks (1946):145 The first type of woman Dovzhenko portrays is the Mother. The woman who inspires him throughout his work is his own mother. Dovzhenko, in his Autobio g raphy and his N otebooks reiterates how much she inspired his artistic productions. She taught him how to render the most difficult moment in one’s life, the moment of parting or leave-taking. In times of war, part ing can be brought to its most sublime level. Dovzhenko calls parting his “stepmother”! In all my films there is parting. The heroes say good-bye as they rush off somewhere far away, on to a different life, unknown but alluring. To keep their hearts from breaking they say good-bye hastily and carelessly with out looking back. It’s the ones who stay behind who cry...In my films the image of my mother has oversha dowed the few other women characters. Autobiography P -1 In his 1946 N otebooks he reiterates: In all my films there are scenes of leave-taking. Hus bands say good-bye to their wives, sons to their fathers. They say good-bye and cry or choke back the tears and wave a hand and look back at the cottage for the last time. There must be something profoundly Ukrainian in this artistic motif, something determined by the histori cal destiny of the nation. Songs of farewell...Separation is our stepmother. She has been living in our house for a long, long time, and no one, apparently, can drive her out, lull her to sleep, or steal her away. The basic motif of our folk songs is grief. This is the motif of separation [...] Parting however, does not inspire Dovzhenko to portray women as weak characters crying for their loved one. Indeed, they cry because they are all too human. However, their tears are the source of their strenght to survive under the worst conditions. They are defensa- less victims caught in the politics of the military men, but their spirit is invincible. Nothing in the women’s education or formal instruction has prepared them to defend themselves, yet Dovzhenko sees the women’s determination drenched in tears as the greatest weapon and greatest wonder of human experience and it is this 14 ’’НАШЕ Ж ИТТЯ”, ТРАВЕНЬ 1996 Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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