For a Crust of Bread (Women's Voices in Ukrainian Literature, Vol. VI)

By Nataliya Kobrynska

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0968389953
• ISBN13: 9780968389959
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Language Lanterns Publications
• Length: 471 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Seven Outstanding Ukrainian Authors Explore Marriage and Social Values in the Class Society of Thei

For a Crust of Bread is both the title of Volume VI in the series called Women's Voices in Ukrainian Literature, which was launched in 1998, and the title of a story by Nataliya Kobrynska. The purpose of this series (Women's Voices in Ukrainian Literature) is to provide English readers with selected works of Ukrainian women writers (most of whom have not been previously translated into English) and thereby enhance their understanding of women's slow, difficult, and ongoing trek to political, economic and social equality. Two authors each are featured in Volumes I through IV, which cover a broad array of subjects. Volume V draws on the works of six of these writers as it illuminates the lives of children and adolescents during a turbulent era. In this Volume VI, seven of the original authors explore marriage and social values in the class society of that day. In the Introduction to the Series, we learn that not only was marriage the pivotal event in life, but also that for women in particular "it was the primary determinant of the quality of their lives." Many factors played a role in a young woman's 'marriageability' and shaped her view of the appropriateness of her suitors: social status, anticipated inheritance, dowry, and appearance. Impoverished circumstances also affected men; and, they also, at times, compromised their happiness to maintain a position in society or to ensure financial security. Within Volume VI, seven Ukrainian authors are featured; a detailed Biographical Sketch and a Portrait Sketch of each enhances our knowledge of their personal lives and the ensuing impacts on their writings. For a Crust of Bread features the selected works of Ukrainian prose fiction in English by Olena Pchilka (1849-1930), Nataliya Kobrynska (1855-1920), Lyubov Yanovska (1861-1933), Olha Kobylianska (1863-1942), Yevheniya Yaroshynska (1868-1904), Hrytsko Hryhorenko (1867-1924), and Lesia Ukrainka (1871-1913); their works range from sketches and vignettes to novels and novelettes. "Together they constitute an unsystematic but compelling social history of an era during which the mortar of social mores, religious beliefs, and gender distinctions began to crumble as successive political and ideological cataclysms wreaked havoc, with time-honoured personal and societal relations." Olena Pchilka is the literary name/pseudonym of the first author featured--Olha Drahomanova-Kosach--yes, she's the mother of Lesia Ukrainka (and, it was she who suggested the pseudonym of Lesia Ukrainka for her daughter, another of the authors featured in this volume). See Volume I of the series, The Spirit of the Times, for a sample of more of Pchilka's stories, which provide a glimpse into Ukrainian life and history prevailing during that time. In this Volume VI, we're treated to her short story, Artichokes. The title, For a Crust of Bread, is also the second story (written in 1884) by Nataliya Kobrynska, who was born in Western Ukraine, then part of the Austro-H