Неканонічний канон

Series · 3 books · 1862-1927

By Marko Vovchok, Valerian Pidmohylny, Volodymyr Vynnychenko

Books in series

The City

1927

The City (Ukrainian: Місто) is an urban novel by Ukrainian writer Valerian Pidmohylny, published in 1928. Pidmohylny created the modern novel, which is focused on urban problems and touches upon philosophical questions of being. In this novel psyche of the characters is analyzed and the conflict takes place between people with different worldviews. Misto is the first urban novel in the Ukrainian literature, with new characters, issues and narrative style.

Notes of a Pug-Nosed Mephistopheles

1917

Notes of a Pug-Nosed Mephistopheles (Zapysky kyrpatoho Mefistofelia), a novel first published in 1917, provides some good examples of Vynnychenko's views on sexual morality. Preserving virginity is a “violation of the laws of nature” (p.105); morality is “the pink cosmetic powder over the laws of nature” (p.121); and honesty is a concept “invented by human hypocrisy, stupidity and by the imperfect social structure” (p.123). The novel deals with the problem of unwanted children that complicate the lives of sexual partners and an attempted infanticide. Uncertainty about paternity is one of Vynnychenko’s preoccupations; once it is firmly established, paternity becomes a force that can overcome his commitment to free love and replace it with moral obligations. (Marta Tarnawsky)

After Finishing School

1862

Marko Vovchok. After Finishing School. Translated from the Ukrainian by Oles Kovalenko. Kyiv: Dnipro, 1983. 124 p.

Authors

Marko Vovchok

Author · 3 books

Marko Vovchok was a pseudonym of a famous Russian and Ukrainian writer. Vovchok contributed to Russian literature by publishing works in the Russian language and to Ukrainian literature by publishing works in Ukrainian langauge. While there is a broad consensus about the authorship of the Russian language works published under pseudonym Marko Vovchok (it was Mariya Lobach-Chuzhenko, also known as Mariya Markovytch during her first marriage and by her maiden name Mariya Vilinskaya, 1833 – 1907), to this day there is no consensus among literary historians as to the authorship of the Ukrainian language works published under this pseudonym: today most modern scholars believe that Vilinskaya's first husband, a Ukrainian folklorist and writer Opanas Markovytch (1822 - 1867), was likely either the sole author of Ukrainian language works of Marko Vovchok or at the very least the co-author of those works). Ukrainian-language and Russian-language author page: Марко Вовчок French-language author page: Marko Vovtchok

Valerian Pidmohylny

Author · 4 books

Writer and translator. He graduated from high school in Katerynoslav in 1918 and then continued his studies at Kyiv University. In 1921 he began working with various publishing houses and joined the editorial board of Zhyttia i revoliutsiia. The first of his short stories to be published were ‘Vania’ and ‘Haidamaky’ (Haidamakas), which appeared in 1919 in Sich, a journal in Katerynoslav. He also contributed to the almanac Vyr revoliutsiï (1921). He was a member of the literary organization Lanka. His published collections of stories include Tvory (Works, vol 1, 1920), V epidemichnomu baratsi (In the Quarantine Ward, 1922), Povstantsi i ynshi opovidannia (The Insurgents and Other Stories, 1923), Viis’kovyi litun (Army Pilot, 1924), and Problema khliba (The Problem of Bread, 1927, 1930). He also wrote the novelette Ostap Shaptala (1922). Pidmohylny's early works focus on various pre- and postrevolutionary realities, such as the Famine of 1921–3. His most notable work is the novel Misto (The City, 1928), one theme of which captures the relationship between the city and the village against the backdrop of the New Economic Policy. His last published work was Nevelychka drama (A Little Drama), a novel about people in the ‘era of socialist reconstruction,’ which was serialized in Zhyttia i revoliutsiia in 1930 but first released separately in Paris in 1956. It appeared in translation as A Little Touch of Drama (trans by George Stephen Nestor Luckyj and M. Luckyj, 1972). Pidmohylny's translations, particularly those of the works of Honoré de Balzac, Denis Diderot, Anatole France, Guy de Maupassant, and Stendhal, significantly influenced the development of Ukrainian literature in the 1920s. Pidmohylny's early works were subjected to severe official criticism. Some were even attacked for ‘romanticizing Makhnovism’ (Andrii Khvylia). The novel Misto was also denounced. Pidmohylny was expelled from his editorial position in 1930 and was arrested in 1934. He was incarcerated in various prisons and concentration camps until he was shot, along with many other Ukrainian writers. He was rehabilitated in 1956. Misto and some other stories were republished in Ukraine in 1989. A selection of stories, including some previously never published, appeared in 1991 as Istoriia pani Ïvhy (The Story of Mrs Ivha).

Volodymyr Vynnychenko

Author · 6 books

Ukrainian statesman, political activist, writer, playwright, artist, who served as 1st Prime Minister of Ukraine. As a writer, Vynnychenko is recognized in Ukrainian literature as a leading modernist writer in prerevolutionary Ukraine, who wrote short stories, novels, and plays, but in Soviet Ukraine his works were forbidden, like that of many other Ukrainian writers, from the 1930s until the mid-1980s. Prior to his entry onto the stage of Ukrainian politics, he was a long-time political activist, who lived abroad in Western Europe from 1906-1914. His works reflect his immersion in the Ukrainian revolutionary milieu, among impoverished and working-class people, and among emigres from the Russian Empire living in Western Europe. Український політичний та державний діяч, а також прозаїк, драматург та художник. Народився 1880 року в селі Веселий Кут Єлисаветградського повіту на Херсонщині (тепер Григор’ївка Кіровоградської області). Навчався у сільській народній школі, згодом у Єлисаветградській гімназії, на юридичному факультеті Київського університету. Брав участь у діяльності Революційної української партії, потім УСДРП. З 1903 р. — на професійній революційній роботі. Член та заступник голови Центральної Ради, перший голова Генерального секретаріату, генеральний секретар внутрішніх справ. Очолював українську делегацію, яка у травні 1917 р. передала Тимчасовому урядові вимоги Центральної Ради про надання Україні автономії. Автор усіх головних законодавчих актів УНР. Після відставки з поста прем’єра засудив гетьманський переворот. З листопада 1918 до лютого 1919 р. очолював Директорію. Усунутий за ліві погляди. Виїхавши за кордон, організував в Австрії Закордонну групу українських комуністів. У 1920 році повернувся в Україну, але спроби співпрацювати з більшовиками закінчилися невдало. З кінця 20-х років жив у Франції. Помер 6 березня 1951 року. Прах покоїться на цвинтарі Мужена.