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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Sisters

27 July, 1999 - 00:00

In a time when the bottom seems to have fallen out of the
market for Ukrainian culture, it is particularly gratifying to hear from
those who are nonetheless making their mark on that culture. In a society
where even serious male writers seem to think women are best kept barefoot
and pregnant, it is even better to encounter women who are making serious
contributions to Ukrainian literature and thought. This issue presents
two such sisters, Oksana Zabuzhko and Natalia Dziubenko. Both first won
recognition as poets and have moved on to prose, and after them Ukrainian
literature will never be quite the same.

Oksana Zabuzhko is not only a writer but also a serious scholar bringing
modern world critical methodologies to bear on understanding such pivotal
nineteenth century Ukrainian writers as Taras Shevchenko and Ivan Franko.
Her notorious novel, Field Research on Ukrainian Sex probably
owes its popular success more to the title than its content, for it really
is not about sex at all, but about the slave mentality of Ukrainian men.
I personally consider Oksana's prose introverted and personal. She always
portrays her fictional subjects from the perspective of the first person.
She is not easy to read but well worth the effort. It is fortunate that
at least some of her work has been translated into English.

Natalia Dziubenko, whose St. Andrew the Apostle is still in the
print shop and reviewed here by Klara Gudzyk, is completely different.
No need to bother looking for the author there; instead there is a panoply
of unique and vivid characters. While Oksana was busy immersing herself
in Western cultural studies, Natalia was poring over old dictionaries and
Chubynsky's nineteenth century collection of Ukrainian folk sayings. On
this basis she has completely rewritten and reconstructed the Ukrainian
language. You will undoubtedly hear more about the book this fall. More
than one member of the Union of Writers, after reading one of the pre-release
copies in circulation, has said that they will never be able to write the
same as they did. I agree, but then I should not lavish too much praise
on that particular author. After all, she is my wife.

 

 

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