The Blue Rose by Lesia Ukranka Biograph

BAND 89 2022
WIENER
SLAWISTISCHER
ALMANACH
www.peterlang.com
An re and Th
y po li is i
us si m s
e tor ite a p
ou y d e
ts po to rso
id lic pe n
e y rs a
th an o l r
is d na ea
po c l u di
lic op se ng
y yri o co
an gh n p
d t r ly. y f
es es It or
pe tr is th
ci icti im e
al on p au
ly e
an s (w rati tho
y w ve r o
co w to f t
m .pe r his
m te es p
er rl pe u
ci an c bli
al g t t sh
us .co he e
e m p dw
is /h ub o
WIENER SLAWISTISCHER ALMANACH
a ow lis rk
vi
ol tos her
at h `s
io ar
n e)
of .
la
w
.
Gegründet 1978 und bis Band 85 (2020) herausgegeben

von Aage A. Hansen-Löve und Tilmann Reuther
at h `s
a ow lis rk
.
of .
w
n e)
ol tos her
is /h ub o
la
e m p dw
io ar
Herausgegeben von
us .co he e
al g t t sh
ci an c bli
Ilja Kukuj, Riccardo Nicolosi, Brigitte Obermayr
er rl pe u
m te es p
vi
m .pe r his
(Literaturwissenschaft) co w to f t
y w ve r o
und
an s (w rati tho
al on p au
Tilmann Reuther
ci icti im e
pe tr is th
e
(Sprachwissenschaft)
es es It or
d t r ly. y f
an gh n p
y yri o co
ly
lic op se ng
po c l u di
is d na ea
th an o l r
Wissenschaftlicher Beirat
e y rs a
id lic pe n
ts po to rso
e
e tor ite a p
Valentina Apresjan (Moskau)

us si m s
y po li is i
ou y d
Aleksandr Dmitriev (Moskau)

An re and Th
Tomáš Glanc (Zürich)

Luba Golburt (Berkeley)
Miranda Jakiša (Wien)
Magdalena Marszałek (Potsdam)
Matthias Schwartz (Berlin)
Mladen Uhlik (Ljubljana)
Barbara Wurm (Berlin)
An re and Th
y po li is i
us si m s
e tor ite a p
ou y d e
ts po to rso
id lic pe n
e y rs a
th an o l r
is d na ea
po c l u di
lic op se ng
y yri o co
an gh n p
d t r ly. y f
es es It or
pe tr is th
ci icti im e
al on p au
ly e
Band 89
an s (w rati tho
y w ve r o
co w to f t
m .pe r his
m te es p
er rl pe u
ci an c bli
al g t t sh
us .co he e
e m p dw
Ilja Kukuj / Riccardo Nicolosi /
Lausanne - Berlin - Bruxelles - Chennai - New York - Oxford

is /h ub o
a ow lis rk
vi
ol tos her
at h `s
io ar
n e)
Brigitte Obermayr / Tilmann Reuther (Hrsg.)
of .
la
w
.
Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der
Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten
sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar.
Redaktion dieses Bandes:

Ilja Kukuj, Riccardo Nicolosi, Brigitte Obermayr, Tilmann Reuther
Redaktionelle Mitarbeit:
Anja Burghardt, Simone Guidetti
Anfertigung der Druckvorlage: Michael Winkert
at h `s
a ow lis rk
.
of .
w
n e)
ol tos her
is /h ub o
la
e m p dw
Redaktionsadresse:
io ar
us .co he e
Wiener Slawistischer Almanach
al g t t sh
ci an c bli
LMU München
er rl pe u
m te es p
vi
Slavische Philologie
m .pe r his
co w to f t
Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1
y w ve r o
D-80539 München
an s (w rati tho
al on p au
ci icti im e
ISSN 0258-6819
pe tr is th
e
es es It or
ISBN 978-3-631-91078-8 (Print)

d t r ly. y f
an gh n p
ISBN 978-3-631-91124-2 (E-PDF)

y yri o co
ly
lic op se ng
ISBN 978-3-631-91125-9 (E-PUB)

po c l u di
is d na ea
DOI 10.3726/b21347
th an o l r
e y rs a
id lic pe n
ts po to rso
© 2023 Peter Lang Group AG, Lausanne

e
e tor ite a p
us si m s
y po li is i
ou y d
Verlegt durch: Peter Lang GmbH, Berlin, Deutschland

An re and Th
info@peterlang.com http://www.peterlang.com/
Alle Rechte vorbehalten
Das Werk einschließlich aller seiner Teile ist urheberrechtlich geschützt.

Jede Verwertung außerhalb der engen Grenzen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes ist
ohne Zustimmung des Verlages unzulässig und strafbar. Das gilt insbesondere
für Vervielfältigungen, Übersetzungen, Mikroverfilmungen und die
Einspeicherung und Verarbeitung in elektronischen Systemen.
personal reading copy | copyright restrictions (www.peterlang.com/howtoshare)
Inhalt
“Periodicals in the Slavic World.

Contemporary and Historical Perspectives”
Conference at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich,
October 21–22, 2021
Aage A. Hansen-Löve
Between an Almanac and a Journal:
Metamorphoses of the WSA (1978ff.). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Tilmann Reuther
Linguistics Contributions to the Wiener Slawistischer Almanach
(1978ff.): Between East and West in Five Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Илья Виницкий
Вестник любви: журнал В. А. Жуковского в истории русской
лирики . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Александр Соболев
Эволюция поэтического раздела в русской периодике
начала ХХ века (заметки к теме) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Ann Komaromi
Samizdat Periodicals and Truth-Telling in the Late Soviet Union . . . . . 85
Josephine von Zitzewitz

New Russian Literature and Online Journals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Round tables “Journals in and on the Slavic World”

(Simone Guidetti) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Giulia Dossi and Riccardo Nicolosi (Eds.)

Literature and Psychiatry in the Late Russian Empire
Giulia Dossi
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Valeria Sobol
From “Female Malady” to an Environmental Condition:
Hysteria in the Russian scientific discourse of fin-de-siècle . . . . . . . . . . 163
Natalia Vygovskaia
Female Homosexuality as a Psychiatric Case, or The Story of Confession
and Compassion in the Journal Vrach (The Physician, 1898) . . . . . . . . . . 193
Giulia Dossi
Sofia Ivanovna Karamazova, Shrieker:
The Formation of an Individual Self from a Collective Identity . . . . . . . 215
Valeriia Mutс
The Acts of Teaching:
Pedagogical Psychology in Leo Tolstoy’s Aesthetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Matthew Mangold
Psychosomatic Illness and Narrative Medicine in Chekhov’s The Wolf
and A Nervous Breakdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Tamara Hundorova
The Blue Rose by Lesia Ukraїnka:
Biography, Psychiatry and Women’s Writing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Aufsätze und Rezensionen
Clemens Günther
Die politische Ökologie des Treibhauses in der russischen Literatur. . . 315
Erley, Mieka (2021): On Russian Soil. Myth and Materiality

(Philipp Kohl) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Ичин, Корнелија (Уред.) (2021): Зборник Матице српске за

славистику, № 100
(Mikhail Saprykin) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Jandl, Ingeborg (2019): Textimmanente Wahrnehmung bei Gajto

Gazdanov. Sinne und Emotion als motivische und strukturelle
Schnittstelle zwischen Subjekt und Weltbild
(Rainer Grübel) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Lachmann, Renate (2019): Lager und Literatur. Zeugnisse des GULAG

(Wolfgang Stephan Kissel) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Stöckmann, Ingo (Hg.) (2019): Texte der formalistischen Ästhetik.

Eine Quellenedition zu Johann Friedrich Herbart und zur
herbartianischen Theorietradition
(Irina Wutsdorff) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Giulia Dossi and Riccardo Nicolosi (Eds.)
Literature and Psychiatry

in the Late Russian Empire
Wiener Slawistischer Almanach 89 (2022), 297–312
1–16
Tamara Hundorova
The Blue Rose by Lesia Ukraїnka:

Biography, Psychiatry and Women’s Writing 1
Abstract: The article explores The Blue Rose (1896) by Lesia Ukraїnka as a multidi-
mensional and experimental drama. In it, Lesia Ukraїnka transforms numerous bi-
ographical facts into fictional situations and engages in a discussion on topical themes
and motifs of the fin de siècle, in particular female insanity, hysteria, and sexuality. The
writer employs naturalistic methods of scientific analysis and supports her descriptions
of insanity with facts from psychiatric practice. The Blue Rose displays Lesia Ukraїnka’s
interest in Neoplatonism, which she would later associate with a Neo-romantic impulse
ins Blaue. In general, the author did not follow foreign models, as critics claimed. She
masterfully described the authentic practical experience from her own life and from
her relatives’ and friends’ lives, analysing catastrophic transgressions of moral norms,
psychological states, personal lives, and cultural codes, which marked the Zeitgeist of
the new era. These themes represented Lesia Ukraїnka’s initiation to fin de siècle culture
and paved her way to modern drama.
Keywords: modern drama, hysteria, autobiography, Lesia Ukraїnka, Krafft-Ebing
On August 31, 1896, Lesia Ukraїnka finished her first drama The Blue Rose.
Its reviews and lifetime productions turned out to be quite critical. Abram
Hozenpud declared that The Blue Rose was “in fact, an outlandish flower re-
planted in the Ukrainian soil” (Hozenpud 1946: 7). However, contemporary
literary critics consider The Blue Rose as her first attempt at the genre of psy-
chological and symbolic drama (Moklycja 2016: 87); or they draw attention
to the depiction of female insanity and hysteria (Ageieva 1999: 105; Achilli
2020: 354).
1 This article was first published in Ukrainian as: Тамара Гундорова. «Блакитна
троянда» Лесі Українки: психіатрія, біографія і сексуальність (Із додатком).
Слово і час. 2021. №1. С. 3–21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33608/0236-1477.2021.01.3-21
2298 Tamara Hundorova
I propose to study Lesia Ukraїnka’s first drama in terms of rite de passage,

a text with a ritual function: witnessing transformations in culture, gender
and author status within the field of literature. In the most general sense, it
is an act of initiation into fin de siècle culture. The most peculiar features of
this ritual are the transgression of the autobiography genre, a dialogue with
cultural codes, addressing the problem of female sexuality, and employing
the motif of death (Moklycja 2016: 91–92).
The Blue Rose discusses a popular matter in the late nineteenth century,
that is, heredity and genetic illness that the heroine of the drama, Liubov
Hoshchynsʹka, inherits from the mother. The drama depicts a daughter’s at-
tempt to avoid the same fate. An attempt to escape into an illusory world of
ideal love consequently leads her to suicide. Representation of female insan-
ity and “unconventional love” (Ukraїnka III: 31), 2 as well as the critique of a
bourgeois view of happiness and a patriarchal world, are additional, but no
less important aspects of the drama. This article aims to prove that The Blue
Rose treats insanity as a psychiatric and not a psychological phenomenon.
Additionally, it considers the internal history of the Kosach family (Lesia
Ukraїnka’s name at birth was Larysa Kosach) and sensitive personal issues.
Finally, it examines the symbolism in The Blue Rose as a metaphoric por-
trayal of a moral transgression peculiar to the modern era.
The Blue Rose as Commentary to the Fin de Siècle Era
The Blue Rose discusses the modern era, its style and culture – which the
drama calls a “sick culture” – and has a twofold meaning. It is worth not-
ing that the word “moderne” is used in the Ukrainian text of The Blue Rose,
but the term is deliberately replaced by “fin de siècle” in its Russian version
(Ukraїnka III: 276–277). On the one hand, this change highlights the fact
that the characters and the whole act belong to the fin de siècle epoch. On
the other hand, it reveals the author’s personal preferences. The main female
character, Liubov Hoshchynsʹka, is called “ femme modern” (Ukraїnka III: 17)
in the drama and her parlour is arranged “fantastically.” The other charac-
2 Unless otherwise specified, all quotes from Lesia Ukraїnkas works refers to the
collection of her works in 12 volumes listed in the bibliography (Ukraїnka 1976–79).
The Blue Rose by Lesia Ukraїnka 2993
ters perceive it as “original” and “modern:” “There is something... modern...

about her” («В ній є щось …. moderne!..») (Ukraїnka III: 13). Heredity, the
main subject of discussion in the drama, as well as the discussion itself, is
also called “significant, however modern as well” («серйозною, хоча теж
modern») (Ukraїnka III: 17).
The drama contains an abundance of direct references to the renowned
writers of the time, for example, Émile Zola, Henrik Ibsen, the Pre-Rapha-
elites; and to the emerging artistic movements, such as Impressionism and
Symbolism. Furthermore, Lesia Ukraїnka offers numerous reviews on the
modern schools of painting and music through her characters. A young
writer, Orest Hruїch, opposes himself to the French School of Parnassians;
Hoshchynsʹka does not like the Symbolists (Ukraїnka III: 63); a writer, Os-
trozhin, adores the Symbolists and their poetry (it is not without a sense of
irony that Lesia wrote poetry lines for him such as the following: “My pale
yellowish dreams dropped down to your heart” (Мої блідо-жовті мрії спу-
стились на серце твоє…») (Ukraїnka III: 63).
Protsenko, a doctor, claims that he does not understand “modern music”
and compares it to medicine: “screaming, some laments and groans, as if it’s
an operating theatre” («крик, лемент якийсь, стогін, нестотно, як в опе-
раційній залі») (Ukraїnka III: 44). Liubov confesses instead that she likes
the “modern school” («новітню школу») (Ukraїnka III: 44) the most. This
statement reflects the author’s preferences as well. Lesia Ukraїnka’s corre-
spondence from the 1890s mentions the operas Lohengrin and Tannhäuser
by Richard Wagner (Ukraїnka 2016: 93, 114, 118). Her mother, Olena Pchilka,
recollected in her correspondence that during their visit to Vienna in 1891
for a medical consultation on bone tuberculosis (which Lesia suffered from),
they had visited the opera and watched Die Meistersinger. She wrote that: “Of
course it was beautiful, but I do not like Wagner, it is Lesia who adores him”
(«Гарно, звичайно, але я Вагнера не дуже-то люблю – то Леся в ньому
кохається») (Butich et al. 1971: 67).
Notably, cultural references in The Blue Rose are implicitly linked to the
motif of illness. For example, there are mentions of authors who suffered
from it or had written about it. The references to Semen Nadson are of a
particular importance, not merely because he was a youth idol in the 1880s.
Nadson was 25 when he died in 1887. Lesia Ukraїnka was also 25 when she
was working on the drama. It is also the age of The Blue Rose’s main female
character. Nadson, like Lesia herself, suffered from bone tuberculosis, lived
in Kiїv for some time and underwent treatment in Yalta. Lesia Ukraїnka
mentioned Nadson in her letters from Yalta. The text of The Blue Rose also
contains the Ukrainian translation of his poem “Of love, my friend, I fondly
dreamed” («Про любов твою, друже, я марив не раз») done by Ukraїnka
(Ukraїnka III: 38). One of the key phrases of the drama’s protagonist – “It’s
better to flare up and burn to the ground at once than slowly come to an
end on a savage sluggish fire” («Ніж доходить на лютім, повільнім вогні,
краще блиснути враз і згоріти!») (Ukraїnka III: 19) – belongs to Nadson
as well. These words are often attributed to Lesia Ukraїnka and perceived
as the quintessence of her heroine’s nature as well as the author’s life motto.
In fact, these words are her translation of the final lines of Nadson’s poem
“Если ночь проведу я без сна за трудом…” (“If I did not sleep at night and
worked...”).
In general, Lesia Ukraїnka’s references to the fin de siècle culture are
rather critical both in the drama and in her correspondence from the 1890s.
In particular, she wrote that the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood shows signs
of “insanity or insincerity” («багато признаків божевілля або нещирості»)
(Ukraїnka 2016: 433). She also noted that she did not find anything “novel”
in the Arnold Böcklin’s painting exhibition in Berlin (Ukraїnka 2017: 147).
She also criticized Ibsen’s Nora for the implausible transformation of a “naive
creature” («наївного звірятка») into a radical “Frau Ibsen” (Ukraїnka 2017:
182). It seems that the author was trying to both master and oppose the spirit
and style of the new era and at the same time find techniques of her own.
Insanity and psychiatry
On the one hand, illness, abnormality, and transgression convey the spirit of
the modern era. Solomia Pavlychko noted that “the European culture at the
turn of the century was neurotic” (Pavlychko 1999: 238). On the other hand,
in her book Illness as Metaphor, Susan Sontag pointed out that the concept
of illness had a range of peculiar features in the modern era. The metaphor
of illness can be a symbol of a dark and obscure side of a character. It can
transform into self-repression and manifest as a symptom of repressed sex-
uality and desires: “Illness reveals desires of which the patient probably was
unaware” (Sontag 1978: 45). Sontag observes that: “in the twentieth century,
the repellent, harrowing disease that is made the index of a superior sensi-
tivity, the vehicle of ‘spiritual’ feelings and ‘critical’ discontent, is insanity”
(Sontag 1978: 35). In the modern era, the nature of illness itself was linked to
hidden and repressed desires. Thus, the concept of illness acquired a sym-
bolic meaning.
Lesia Ukraїnka employed the topic of illness, and particularly of mental
illness, in response to fin de siècle cultural expectations. She even called the
drama The Blue Rose her “insane child” («безумною дитиною»). Moreover,
the main female character repeats the words of Lesia’s favourite Heinrich
Heine: “Kranke Menschen sind immer wahrhaft vornehmer als gesunde;
denn nur der kranke Mensch ist ein Mensch” (Sick people are indeed always
nobler than healthy people, for only an ill person is truly a person) from Reise
von München nach Genua (Journey from Munich to Genoa): “Тільки хвора
людина є людиною” (“nur ein kranker Mensch ist ein Mensch”), – Lesia
Ukraїnka’s heroine states (Ukraїnka III: 75).
Until recently, most literary critics linked the subject matter of The Blue
Rose to the author’s illness (she had been suffering from bone tuberculosis
since she was twelve years old) or her relations with Nestor Gambarashvili
(Ageieva 1999: 93–95). However, Pavlychko strongly objects to focusing solely
on the autobiographical motifs of the drama. She insists instead that the play
is a literary artefact that stipulates for the choice of insanity as a metaphor of
the modern era (Pavlychko 1999: 244), noting that the biographical explana-
tion is an unconvincing argument. Still, biographical references in the drama
do not concern the illness alone. They are an intrinsic part of the drama’s
concept and are of vital importance among other cultural manifestations of
the time periods that the author examines in the text.
Also, certain critics observed an insufficiency of psychological truth as
well as the “influence of melodramatic style” (Hozenpud 1946: 7) in the rep-
resentation of insanity in the drama. However, it is hard to fully agree with
the statement that “insanity seems to be simplified and unreasonable,” as
it manifests itself “in the author’s remarks, rather than in the characters’
speech and behaviour” (Pavlychko 1999: 244). An analysis of the unpublished
materials from Lesia Ukraїnka’s archive allows us to clarify this statement.
Lesia Ukraїnka had done a thorough preparation before she started working
on the drama. Her handwritten notes on Krafft-Ebing textbooks are pre-
served in the archive. Probably, Liubov Hoshchynsʹka keeps these textbooks
in mind, when she affirms that she reads books on “science, philosophy and...
psychiatry” («наукові, по філософії, психології і … психіатрії») ((Ukraїnka
III: 28). Doctor Protsenko also refers to Krafft-Ebing and Weismann to dis-
prove the concept of the influence of heredity on a person’s life (Ukraїnka
III: 60).
Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840–1902) and August Weismann (1834–1914)
were prominent figures in the scientific and cultural world of the late nine-
teenth century. Krafft-Ebing was a renowned Austro-German psychiatrist
and professor. He is the author of Psychopathia Sexualis (1886) and the psychi-
atry textbooks: Lehrbuch der Psychiatrie auf klinischer Grundlage (Textbook
of Psychiatry on a Clinical Basis (1879); Lehrbuch der Psychiatrie (Textbook of
Psychiatry) (1897); Lehrbuch der gerichtlichen Psychopathologie (Textbook of
forensic psychopathology) (1895). In 1881–1882, the Russian translations of his
psychiatry textbooks under the name Uchebnik psikhiatrii, sostavlennii na
osnovanii klinicheskikh nabliudenii dlia prakticheskikh vrachei i studentov
were published in three volumes. August Weismann was a famous German
evolutionary biologist, who claimed that hereditariness only takes place by
means of germ cells, while somatic cells do not function as agents of heredity.
Lesia Ukraїnka’s interest in psychiatry and insanity arose in the summer
of 1896, when she stayed with her uncle, Oleksandr Drahomanov. He worked
in a psychiatric hospital in the village of Tworky near Warsaw at that time.
Ukraїnka paid visits to the hospital and communicated with the patients.
No later than August, she announced to her acquaintances that she “had
just returned from the lunatic asylum […]” («тілько недавно вернулась із
сумашедшого дому […]») (Ukraїnka 2016: 403). She wrote the essay A City
of Sorrow (Silhuettes) in September 1896, just after she had finished The Blue
Rose. The essay describes Lesia’s impressions of the mental hospital – “the
city of sorrow” – and depicts it as the place where “hallucinations have set-
tled even in the air” («саме повітря населено галюцинаціями») (Ukraїnka
VII: 136). One scene in A City of Sorrow narrates about a meeting with a
man, who called himself both a “senior insane” and a “professor of the new
psychiatry.” He diagnosed himself with Mania erotica and even prescribed

himself a treatment.
In the most general sense, the writer was interested in the notion of a
“normal” and “insane” person, and how cognition and madness can coexist
within an individual. The doctor defines a type of insanity that a patient
from A City of Sorrow had as Folie raisonnante. Krafft-Ebing described it as
a “constitutional emotional (affective) insanity” (Krafft-Ebing 1861: 284) and
pointed out that: “certain patients present a wonderful mixture of lucidity
and disease, know well how to justify perverse acts, are perverted in action
and feeling, but formally think correctly and logically” (Von Krafft-Ebing
1861: 365).
In her unpublished hand-written notes from Krafft-Ebing, Lesia Ukraїnka
concentrates on the Folie raisonnante phenomenon and explains it as “an
ability to excuse and account for one’s actions (Folie raisonnante)” («виправ-
довувати і мотивувати свої вчиники (Folie raisonnante)») (Ukraїnka n.d.:
8). She displayed particular interest in intermittent psychosis, paroxysmal
attacks, and early signs and symptoms of the illness. Also, Ukraїnka’s notes
contain some direct references to herself and The Blue Rose. In particular,
this is what Lesia Ukraїnka wrote on Mania periodica: “The feeling of a
forthcoming attack is an unusually depressing feeling (act 5): irritability and
sorrow, but not melancholy in the medical sense. Head rushes, palpitations,
dizziness, neuralgia, headache, sensitivity, insomnia and general fatigue are
the signs of a severe infectious disease (my state before a typhus)” («Тяжке
пригнічуюче почуття наближення приступу (5 дія), роздратованість і
сум, але не меланхолія в медич[ному] сенсі. Приливи крові до голови,
серцебиття, захитування голови, невралгія, головний біль, посилена
роздратованість, почуття безсоння, загальна розбитість, – ознаки, які зу-
стрічаються і при тяжкому інфекційному захворювання (мій стан перед
тифом)») (Ukraїnka n.d.: 5).
The fifth act of The Blue Rose describes Liubov and Orest’s last meeting
as well as the initial stage of her insanity. The main female character poisons
herself at the end of the act. She makes a conscious and rational decision by
choosing death to put an end to her illness. Despite the melodramatic nature
of the scene, it represents a challenge to traditional literary interpretations of
insanity as a total loss of self, displaying instead the ability to think rationally
during the attack. Lesia Ukraїnka’s notes on the similarity in the physical
weakening before an attack of insanity and of typhus finds a confirmation in
her mother’s letter. Olena Pchilka wrote that her daughter had suffered from
typhus in September 1891 in Crimea (Butich et al. 1971: 78).
Lesia Ukraїnka’s notes show that she was interested in paroxysms and
lucid intervals as well as in the role of internal and external triggers for both
sane and insane individuals. She stressed the fact that a person could look
and act like two different individuals during paroxysmal attacks, and during
their normal state. She listed the following symptoms of a paroxysmal attack:
exhilaration, passion for shiny things, desire to recite and sing, restlessness,
witty jokes, ability to justify and account for personal actions, and jealousy
(particularly in females). In the meantime, the signs of a forthcoming attack
are insomnia, headache, immoderate liveliness, verbosity, irritability, and
mental confusion (Ukraїnka n.d.: 7).
A careful reading of The Blue Rose shows that Lesia Ukraїnka employed
these signs to account for her heroine’s changing nature and moments of
madness. Thus, the state of insanity is characterized as a psychiatric, not a
psychological one. However, this accurate depiction of the symptoms does
not convey the psychological depth of the situations described in the play and
seems instead to be melodramatic.
The symptoms outlined by Lesia Ukraїnka in The Blue Rose are gener-
ally associated with hysteria. However, Hoshchynsʹka’s hysterical behaviour
is only an element of the kind of insanity portrayed in the drama. Krafft-
Ebing’s textbook contains a separate chapter on hysterical insanity, but there
are no references to this chapter in Ukraїnka’s notes. The Austrian psychia-
trist emphasized that hysteria is a neurosis accompanied by emotional anom-
alies, and, as a rule, is a short-termed phenomenon. The transformation of
hysterical neurosis into its “degenerate” forms – Folie raisonnante, moral in-
sanity – depends upon constitutional and, usually, hereditary predisposition
(Krafft-Ebing 1861: 500). Since Lesia Ukraїnka was interested in hereditary
insanity, she depicted the transformation of hysteria into insanity. However,
she did not place the topic in the centre of her drama, unlike Olʹha Kobi-
liansʹka in her novel “Людина” (A Human), which examines the heroine’s
hysterical escape from patriarchal society (Hundorova 2002: 101).
Still, the drama contains references to hysteria. Lesia Ukraїnka noted

stage directions in a letter to her mother. She cautioned against the lead ac-
tress appearing too hysterical since elements of hysteria are abundant in the
drama. Lesia worried that additional emphasis would transform her heroine
into a delirious figure, which she is not (Ukraїnka 2016: 465). The word “hys-
teria” is used in the text of the drama several times. Liubov “bursts into hys-
terical tears” in a fit of jealousy for Orest and an unfamiliar lady (Ukraїnka
III: 66). Moreover, Doctor Protsenko says that married women suffer from
hysteria, while young ladies live with their heads in the clouds.
Starting with the Enlightenment, the figure of the doctor often acted as
the authority, charged with giving rational explanations to manifestations
of spiritual life or actions that went beyond generally accepted principles
and habits. The doctor played the role of philosopher, the representative of
common sense, keeper of a conservative moral worldview, and the embodi-
ment of patriarchal values. This is how Ukraїnka accurately portrays Doctor
Protsenko.
Yet, Lesia Ukraїnka’s interest in hysteria was not confined to mere liter-
ary or psychiatric issues. In fact, hysteria seemed to run in the Kosach fam-
ily. Her mother, sisters, and Lesia herself suffered from hysteria (Hundorova
2020: 103–104). Family correspondence gives reason to believe that Olena
Pchilka’s temper often caused hysterical attacks. Sometimes, her nervous-
ness, “resentments” and “exhausting discussions” that “got under everyone’s
skin” made family life a living hell (Ukraїnka XI: 375–376). The act of writing
“The Blue Rose” seem to function as a self-fulfilling prophecy for Ukraïnka,
whose own neurotic illness worsened after the play was completed. Later in
1896, her health in general worsened. She underwent several painful surger-
ies with injections of iodoform (it was used medically as a healing and anti-
septic dressing at that time). Her neurosis also became apparent. In March
1897, Ukraїnka recollected her nervous breakdown and confessed that as
soon as you lost control of your nerves, “next thing you know, you’re labelled
as a neurasthenic or hysterical person” («так не оглянешся, як попадеш в
неврастеніки чи істерички») (Ukraїnka 2016: 473).
The notion of “hysteria” came into wide use due to the works Studies
on Hysteria (Studien über Hysterie 1895) and On the Psychical Mechanism
of Hysterical Phenomena (Über den psychischen Mechanismus hysterischer
10
Phänomene, 1893) by Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud. The authors were the
first to point out the connection between hysteria and repressed desires. They
hypothesized that sexuality plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of hyste-
ria. Moreover, sexuality acts not only as a “psychological trauma,” but also
as a “defence” mechanism, which leads to the repression of peculiar unac-
ceptable images.
Projecting the hysterical discourse described by Freud on Lesia Ukraїn-
ka’s drama reveals a painful disruption of the mother archetype as well as the
transfer of the daughter’s self-identification from her father to the beloved
man. Moreover, the daughter follows the behaviour of the imaginary mother,
who tortures her husband with her illness and virtually kills him.
A struggle with the mother and its autobiographic origin
The fact that the daughter inherits her insanity from her mother in the drama
points to a significant aspect of The Blue Rose: an appeal against maternity
and the maternal instinct. The topic unfolds in two dimensions: the first one
is an archetypal dimension and the second one is concerned with social life.
The mentally ill mother is menacing for Liubov Hoshchynsʹka. The mother,
as a phantom of hereditariness, haunts her daughter and ruins her happiness.
The image of the mother reflects the daughter’s self and manifests itself as her
precise copy bearing a “family resemblance.” The daughter strives to break
out from the mother’s authority and flee to an ideal asexual love, thus putting
an end to the cycle of hereditary maternity. From a psychoanalytic point of
view, the drama focuses on the main heroine’s gendered self-identification
and the transference of her desire from the mother to the father. The daugh-
ter does not express any sympathy for her mother. However, she talks a lot
about her “poor daddy”, who was nagged by his wife’s illness until “it killed
him” («се його вбило») (Ukraїnka III: 16); “my poor daddy, he looked at me
with such unrest” («мій бідний татко, як він з тривогою дивився на мене»)
(Ukraїnka III: 17); “he didn’t bring me up, he loved me, and that’s it” («він не
виховував мене, він просто любив мене») (Ukraїnka III: 27). Orest says that
Liubov is “a spitting image of her father” («вилитий батько») (Ukraїnka III:
17), trying to object to her resemblance to the mother.
307
Apart from the archetypical and symbolic image of the mother, the drama
also concentrates on a particular mother – Mrs Hruїcheva. Lesia Ukraїnka
deliberately and consistently analyses Hruїcheva’s relationships with her son,
her maternal jealousy, and her possessive maternal instinct. In fact, it is Or-
est’s mother who causes Liubov’s hereditary illness first to appear and even-
tually to worsen. Mrs Hruїcheva ridicules their “divine love,” calling it just
teenage merriment. She also calls Liubov Hoshchynsʹka insane (when there
are still no signs of illness) and accuses her of trying to take away “her child.”
The mother lays claim on her son: “I have a right to you. I nurtured you, I
brought you up, I gave up my whole life for you” («Я маю право на тебе. Я
тебе викохала, виростила, тобі все життя віддала») (Ukraїnka III 1976: 68).
Eventually, Orest rises against his mother’s overbearing persona and refuses
to be a possession: “took him away from me” ... “from me” ... “so that is the
matter” ... “Orest is mine, keep your hands off him!” («одібрала у мене» … «
у мене»… от в чім діло… «Мій син Орест, моя власність, хто сміє займати
його!») (Ukraїnka III: 103). Orest’s neurasthenia and disability are the out-
come of his identification with the mother. In fact, it is a male hysteria. He
ends up being paralyzed, unable to walk, and becomes a morphine addict.
Ukraïnka’s mother was herself a well-known Ukrainian writer and civil
activist, and the sister of Mykhailo Drahomanov. Lesia Ukraїnka based her
depiction of the overpowering mother motif on her biography. We can see
this in Olena Pchilka’s own words. She emphasized that her children’s biog-
raphies “complement my own life history” (Butich et al. 1971: 85).
Several studies have been conducted on the complex character of rela-
tions between mother and daughter. George Grabowicz observed “the clas-
sic form of a mother’s psychological control over her children” (Grabowicz
2003: 586) in the relationship between Olena Pchilka and Lesia Ukraїnka.
The scholar emphasized the mother’s authoritative power over her children.
Nila Zborovska expressed an opposing idea. She considered the painful ma-
ternal vestige to be “the main psychological childhood trauma” (Zborovska
2002: 23) in Lesia Ukraїnka’s life.
I would suggest that The Blue Rose reflects not only the mother-daughter
relations, but also the tension of the mother-son relations, which came to
the fore when Olena Pchilka’s favourite son Mykhailo married Oleksandra
Sudovshchikova. There are mentions of the great “discord” among the three
12
of them in their private correspondence. In a letter to her son, Pchilka writes

that he is “a devastated soul,” who is “held by the short hair with an unseemly
dominant and jealous hand,” and forced to “disregard his own family, break
off relations, [and] stop dramatizing” (Butich et al. 1971: 124).
Thus, the maternal motif in Lesia Ukraїnka’s drama bears an autobi-
ographical stamp that feeds into moral and psychological conflicts, including
the theme of escape into ideal love and the denial of sexuality and repro-
ductive maternity, which is threatened by heredity. Yet, until now scholars
have disregarded the aspect of repressed maternity and the struggle against
maternal power in Lesia Ukraїnka’s drama.
The Blue Rose and Sexual Repression
Lesia Ukraїnka joined the discussion on the modern era by depicting psycho-
logical and sexual transgressions. However, she was not limited to the latter.
Her interpretations of life and human relations within the framework of aes-
thetics and different cultural forms (genres, models) is another crucial point.
It is not a coincidence that the characters of The Blue Rose discuss at length
the issue on the “genre” of love in the modern era – whether it is a drama, a
comedy, a ballet, or a poem (Ukraїnka III: 30–31). Thus, Hoshchynsʹka, who
strives to break out of hereditary illness, prefers an “unconventional love”
over a “conventional” one that presupposes marriage and maternity. Liubov
fantasizes of an ideal love as a beautiful poem, like Dante’s love to Beatrice,
of love without pain, regrets, and sexuality. The Blue Rose symbolises this
sublimated form of love.
The interpretation of the “blue rose” image is rather abstract in the finale
of the drama. However, the draft of the drama and its Russian version dis-
plays a vivid link to Medieval mysticism and troubadour courtly love. It as-
sociates the image of the blue rose with “a poetic symbol of pure and sublime
love” («поетичним символом чистої, високої любові») (Ukraїnka III: 380).
This kind of love is the love of a knight “without fear or blame,” («без страху
й догани») who “never had an impure thought of his lady-love, never gazed
at her with lust, never dreamt of marriage” («ніколи не мав нечистої думки
про свою даму серця, ніколи не кинув на неї жадібного погляду, ніколи
не марив про шлюб») (Ukraїnka III: 380).
309
The author introduced several models of ideal love that are hidden in the
“blue rose” symbol. Liubov sees it in Dante’s Neoplatonic ideal. Milevʹskii
considers it the love of troubadours, when “once in a while, it’s hard to tell a
blue rose from an adultery” («часом трудно одрізнити блакитну троянду
від адюльтера») (Ukraїnka III: 30). Orest says that in medieval times this
kind of love was exalted, however, in the modern era, it is “an insane creation
of a sick culture, a crime against nature” («ненормальне створіння хворої
культури, продукт насильства над природою») (Ukraїnka III: 30).
Present-day scholars state that so-called courtly love is an invention of
the nineteenth and twentieth century, when “the frankly passionate, erotic,
and embodied poetry of the troubadours is transformed into something
decorous, pious, and bloodless” (Bryson 2017: 136). According to Denis de
Rougemont, the lovers in the medieval novel about Tristan and Isolde are
looking for the intensification of passion (De Rougemont 1983: 143–150). It
allows them to escape from the reality before death, they choose an immense
passion as the last resort before their death. This kind of love significantly
differs from the love described by Dante and Petrarca. Their love bears the
stamp of the spiritual nature of Neoplatonism and is associated with ascend-
ing to divine essence (the soul of the world). Later, Shakespeare separated the
image of love from its Petrarchan flair and related it to real human desires.
Lesia Ukraїnka masterfully exposed the nuances of different love models
in different cultural interpretations. Liubov delivers a Juliette monologue
(translated by Lesia Ukraїnka herself) in a moment of insanity, which tears
up the illusion of an asexual “blue rose.”
In the late nineteenth century, Tristan and Isolde’s love transformed
into the concept of the love-as-death or Liebestod. It was the title that Rich-
ard Wagner gave to the final dramatic aria of his opera Tristan and Isolde.
The opera was first staged in Munich in 1865. It was influenced by Arthur
Schopenhauer’s philosophy. The opera narrates the lovers’ tragic, deadly, and
passionate sufferings: “Death is, then, for Tristan and Isolde the realm of
life and love. Life is for them the realm of death and betrayal, the world of
illusion, delusion, fraud, dishonesty, the world of lovelessness” (Polka 2013:
244). Shortly after Wagner’s opera premiered, the term Liebestod started to be
widely used as a literary term to denote an erotic death – the death of love and
14
because of love. One of the derivative motifs of Liebestod is a suicide motif as

an assertion of an exceptional and absolute love.
Presumably, Lesia Ukraїnka was aware of Wagner’s concept. However,
she presented her own interpretation of “unconventional love” in her drama.
The “blue rose” love is not a Liebestod for her characters. It is not a free fall
into the passionate erotic love-as-death that is a spiritual ascending at the
same time, but rather a risky affair, a game of “pure love,” an insane dream.
Here, death is not spiritual ascension, but the demonstration of the freedom
of individual will.
In general, it is an experiment with sexuality and sensuality. Liubov
dreads to pass a hereditary illness to her children. Thus, she gives up on
the idea of a “normal” life, i.e., marriage and maternity. Instead, she offers
merely a game of love. Liubov wants to replace carnal desires with an ideal
relationship, a blue flower, an eternal poem that is quite in the spirit of the
fin de siècle. However, Lesia Ukraїnka did not turn her story into a symbolic
mystical drama about Neoplatonic divine essence, and she did not transform
the characters into shapeless shadows. Love scenes in the drama are full of
eroticism, passion and even jealousy. It is namely their restrained, repressed
sexuality that causes neurotic illnesses in both lovers. There is no reason to
claim that the drama is based on autobiographical implications and on the
author’s personal emotional experience.
The Blue Rose is a multidimensional and experimental drama. In it, Lesia
Ukraїnka transformed numerous biographical facts into fictional situations.
The writer engaged in a discussion on topical themes and motifs of the fin de
siècle, in particular female insanity, hysteria and sexuality. Lesia Ukraїnka
employed naturalistic methods of scientific analysis and supported her de-
scriptions of insanity with facts from psychiatric practice. She displayed an
interest in Neoplatonism, which she would later associate with a Neo-ro-
mantic impulse ins Blaue. Lesia Ukraїnka’s first drama became a ritual ded-
ication to the spirit and style of the new era. In The Blue Rose, Lesia conveys
themes and plots that were popular in European literature at the end of the
nineteenth century in Ukraine. However, she did not simply follow foreign
patterns, as critics claim. The author adapted authentic practical experience
from her own life and from her relatives’ and friends’ lives, analysing cata-
strophic transgressions of moral norms, psychological states, personal lives,
15
and cultural codes, which marked the Zeitgeist of the new era. These pro-
vided for Lesia Ukraїnka’s initiation to fin de siècle culture and paved her
way to modern drama.
Translated by Olena Pidhrušna
References
Achilli, Alessandro / Yesypenko, Dmytro / Yekelchyk, Serhy (Eds.) (2020):

Cossacks in Jamaica, Ukraine at the Antipodes. Essays in Honor of Marko
Pavlyshyn. Boston: Academic Study Press.
Ageieva, Vira (1999): Poetesa zlamu stolitʹ: Tvorchistʹ Lesi Ukraїnky v postmo
dernii interptetaciї. Kyїv: Lybid‘.
Bryson, Michael / Movsesian, Arpi (Eds.) (2017): Love and its Critics: From
the Song of Songs to Shakespeare and Milton’s Eden. Cambridge: Open
Book Publishers.
Butich, Ivan et al. (Eds.) (1971): Lesia Ukraїnka, Dokumenty i materialy, 1871–
1970. Kiїv: Naukova Dumka.
Grabowicz, George (2003): Do istoriї ukraїnsʹkoї literaturi. Doslidzhennia,
ese, polemika. Kyїv: Krytyka.
Hozenpud, Abram (Ed.) (1946): Lesia Ukraїnka. Teatr, Kyїv: Radiansʹkyi
Pysʹmennik.
Hundorova, Tamara (2002): Femina melancholica. Statʹ i kultura v gendernij
utopii Olgy Kobylianskoii. Kyїv: Krytyka.
Krafft-Ebing, Richard v. (1905): Textbook of insanity, based on clinical obser
vations for practitioners and students of medicine. 1840–1902. Authorized
translation from the last German edition by Charles Gielbert Chaddock.
With Introduction by Frederick Peterson. Philadelphia, F. A. Davis Com-
pany publishers.
Moklycja, Marija (2016): “‘Blakytna trojanda’ jak perša symvolistska drama,”
in: Studia polsko-ukrainskie, Vol. 3, 81–94.
Pavlychko, Solomiia (1999): Dyskurs modernizmu v ukraїnsʹkii literaturi.
Kyїv: Lybidʹ.
312
16 Tamara Hundorova
Polka, Brayton (2013): “Liebestod: On Love and Death in Wagner’s Tristan

and Isolde,” in: International Review of the Aesthetics of Music, CXLIV,
Vol. 2, 239–252.
De Rougemont, Denis (1983): Love in the Western World. Princeton: Prince-
ton University Press.
Sontag, Susan (1978): Illness as Metaphor. New York: Farrar, Straus and Gi-
roux.
Ukraїnka, Lesia (1976–79): Zibrannia tvoriv u dvanadtsiaty tomakh. Kyїv:
Naukova Dumka.
Ukraїnka¸ Lesia (2016): Lysty 1876–1897. Kyїv: Komora.
Ukraїnka, Lesia (2017): Lysty 1898–1902. Kyїv: Komora.
Ukraїnka, Lesia (n.d.): “Krafft-Ebing. Psihiatriia,” in: Archives and Manu-
scripts at the T. H. Shevchenko Institute of Literature, F. 2, N 27.
Zborovska, Nila (2002): Moia Lesia Ukraїnka. Ternopil: Dzhura.

The Blue Rose by Lesia Ukranka Biograph

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originaltitel

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

The Blue Rose by Lesia Ukranka Biograph

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

BAND 89 2022

Gegründet 1978 und bis Band 85 (2020) herausgegeben

Valentina Apresjan (Moskau)

Aleksandr Dmitriev (Moskau)

Tomáš Glanc (Zürich)

Lausanne - Berlin - Bruxelles - Chennai - New York - Oxford

Redaktion dieses Bandes:

Anfertigung der Druckvorlage: Michael Winkert

ISBN 978-3-631-91078-8 (Print)

ISBN 978-3-631-91124-2 (E-PDF)

ISBN 978-3-631-91125-9 (E-PUB)

© 2023 Peter Lang Group AG, Lausanne

Verlegt durch: Peter Lang GmbH, Berlin, Deutschland

Alle Rechte vorbehalten

Das Werk einschließlich aller seiner Teile ist urheberrechtlich geschützt.

“Periodicals in the Slavic World.

Josephine von Zitzewitz

Round tables “Journals in and on the Slavic World”

Giulia Dossi and Riccardo Nicolosi (Eds.)

Aufsätze und Rezensionen

Erley, Mieka (2021): On Russian Soil. Myth and Materiality

Ичин, Корнелија (Уред.) (2021): Зборник Матице српске за

Jandl, Ingeborg (2019): Textimmanente Wahrnehmung bei Gajto

Lachmann, Renate (2019): Lager und Literatur. Zeugnisse des GULAG

Stöckmann, Ingo (Hg.) (2019): Texte der formalistischen Ästhetik.

Giulia Dossi and Riccardo Nicolosi (Eds.)

Literature and Psychiatry

The Blue Rose by Lesia Ukraїnka:

Keywords: modern drama, hysteria, autobiography, Lesia Ukraїnka, Krafft-Ebing

I propose to study Lesia Ukraїnka’s first drama in terms of rite de passage,

The Blue Rose as Commentary to the Fin de Siècle Era

ters perceive it as “original” and “modern:” “There is something... modern...

Insanity and psychiatry

psychiatry.” He diagnosed himself with Mania erotica and even prescribed

Still, the drama contains references to hysteria. Lesia Ukraїnka noted

A struggle with the mother and its autobiographic origin

of them in their private correspondence. In a letter to her son, Pchilka writes

The Blue Rose and Sexual Repression

because of love. One of the derivative motifs of Liebestod is a suicide motif as

Translated by Olena Pidhrušna

Achilli, Alessandro / Yesypenko, Dmytro / Yekelchyk, Serhy (Eds.) (2020):

Polka, Brayton (2013): “Liebestod: On Love and Death in Wagner’s Tristan

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen