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14 WWW. UNWLA.ORG “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЛИПЕНЬ - СЕРПЕНЬ 2012 THE ENIGMATIC MARKO VOVCHOK by Olesia Wallo It will be 105 years in August since the death of perhaps the most mysterious woman writer in Ukrainian literature, who , like George Sand in 19th - century France and George Eliot in 19th - century Britain, published her works under a male pen name — Marko Vovchok. During her eventful life (1833 - 1907) and literary career, Mariya Vilins’ka (Marko Vov - chok’s real name) moved with astonishing ease between countries, languages, and cultu res. She wrote and published in Ukrainian, Russian, and French, translated from French, German, English, and Polish, and operated so well in these and ot h- er languages that native speakers frequently could not believe she was a foreigner. Besides mastering languages and cultures, however, she had also managed to steal the hearts of quite a few famous literary men — from her first husband Opanas Markovych, a Ukrainian folklo r- ist and ethnographer, to Panteleimon Kulish, who invented her pen name and ed ited her first colle c- tion of stories, to Russia’s celebrated writer Ivan Turgenev and the Russian literary critic Dmitri Pisarev. While many men of her time were me s- merized, more than a few women expressed their bewilderment and ire, calling into question Marko Vovchok’s integrity in both personal and profe s- sional matters. For decades, a rumor circulated among Ukrainian literati that Marko Vovchok was actually a joint pseudonym for Vilins’ka and Opanas Ma r- kovych, who had allegedly helped her write the bea utiful stories from Ukrainian folk life for which she became famous. Although of Ukrainian - Polish descent, Vilins’ka was born in Russia’s Orel pro v- ince, and Russian was her native tongue. How could someone who didn’t speak Ukrainian since childhood, Vilins ’ka’s critics reasoned, craft such talented fiction in the most exquisite Ukrainian of the day? The rumor was finally put to rest through careful comparisons of Marko Vovchok’s stories to the letters and ethnographic notes written by V i- lins’ka prior to the publication of her Ukrainian fiction. The study of these documents revealed striking linguistic similarities between them, co n- firming that Mariya Vilins’ka was the only person behind the pen name ‘Marko Vov chok.’ Today, Marko Vovchok is best - known as the author of socially engaged realist prose in Ukrainian, especially her stories about the diff i- cult life of women serfs in Ukrainian villages. School curricula in Ukraine continue to include her long story Instytutka ( A Women's College Graduate ), whi ch features one of Marko Vov - chok’s most vivid, yet most revolting , characters — a nobleman’s daughter who, upon graduating from a women's college, returns home to terrorize her servants and family members. The story is a good example of Marko Vovchok’s mast erly use of the Ukrainian language: it is believably narrated by a Ukrainian woman serf and is full of striking images as well as folk proverbs and sayings. From Instytutka by Marko Vovchok: * A day, a week, a month, a half - year passed, like a river rushing by. It seemed quiet and peaceful in the little village with its blossoms and its greenery. If only one could see what was really going on b e- hind the scenes! People woke up crying and went to bed crying and cursing their lot. T he young m i- stress had twisted everything to her own liking. She handed out the hard work and a tough time to ev e- rybody, forcing everyone to put a shoulder to the wheel — the handicapped and little children not e x- cluded. The children tidied her orchard and tended her turkeys; crippled folk sat in the orchard scaring off the sparrows and other birds. The mistress always found reason to pour words of scorn on ever y- thing so that it made you feel that the work you were doing was slave labor. She saw all that wen t on as if she had had a hundred eyes. She glided back and forth about the village like a lizard, and God only knows what it was in her: she had only to look at you and it would be as if she was crushing your heart in her hand. * English translation by N. Pedan - Popil. From: Marko Vovchok. Ukrainian Folk Stories . Ed. H. B. Timothy. Saskatoon: Western Producer Prairie Books, 1983. Pp. 97 - 134 .
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