Kostenko Lina Vasilievna: biography, creativity, photo

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Kostenko Lina Vasilievna is a Ukrainian poetess who belongs to the so-called generation of the sixties. She had to go through many trials. She went into a creative "recluse". By her nature, she could not get along even with the Ukrainian intelligentsia, whose basic values she always defended. But Lina Kostenko, whose work and life we will consider in this short essay, has always been very beloved among young people. Students, like many years ago, go to her lectures and rarely meet with her. And every time when some outstanding event happens in Ukraine, the poetess responds to it with a sharp, and sometimes sarcastic aphorism.

Early years

Kostenko Lina Vasilievna was born in the month of March, on the 19th of 1930, in the city of Rzhishchev, not far from Kyiv, in a family of teachers. Six years after her birth, the family moved to the capital of Ukraine. She lived on Trukhanov Island, which in those years was called "Kyiv's Venice". During the Nazi occupation, it was burned down along with the village. She graduated from two universities - the Kyiv Pedagogical and Moscow Literary Institute - and in 1956 entered the adultlife. Already in those years, it was she, Lina Kostenko, who was unofficially called one of the most promising poetesses. The photo in the youth of our heroine shows her graceful figure, intelligent face and bold look.

Sixties

At first, the poet's poems were favorably received by critics. But, starting in 1961, they began to accuse her of being “apolitical” and practically did not print her, and criticism of the then authorities appeared more and more in her work. Poems by Lina Kostenko began to be published in other countries - in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and were also popular in "samizdat". When dissidents among the Ukrainian intelligentsia began to be arrested in 1965, they openly spoke out in defense of the persecuted in their characteristic outrageous manner. She wrote letters in defense of political prisoners, threw them flowers during the trial. Even then, young people gave her a standing ovation, despite the danger of such a manifestation of feelings. Although Kostenko Lina Vasilievna was not arrested herself and did not get interrogated, she simply ceased to be noticed in the Soviet press. Her name was not mentioned, and she herself was blacklisted. The woman worked mostly "on the table".

Creativity of the era of disgrace

Despite the fact that the proud Ukrainian poetess was silenced, it was during this period that she wrote her most famous works. First of all, these are the collections "Prince's Mountain" and "Over the Banks of the Eternal River", as well as the novel in verse "Marusya Churai", the poem "Berestechko" and "Thought of the Neazovsky Brothers", the play "Gardenfloating sculptures". In her poems, even the earliest, there is a deep philosophical overtones. She easily overcomes established literary stereotypes. The collection "Over the Banks of the Eternal River" became a real poetic discovery. The main credo of Lina was the words of one of her heroes that he was not afraid of informers in the tavern, because he prefers to express everything to the king in person. She was so loved by readers that even Soviet officials were afraid to touch her.

Images and associations

In her works Lina Kostenko turns her thoughts to traditional subjects. These are images of art, mythological characters, biographies of famous people. But at the same time, she gives all this a second and third meaning, argues with the present, draws interesting parallels, makes subtle ironic attacks. Critics argue that in this field the poetess has no equal in modern Ukrainian literature. Her poetic novel on the historical theme "Marusya Churai" had an amazing success. This is a literary interpretation of the famous story about unhappy love. A girl writing popular Ukrainian songs fell in love with a Cossack and then poisoned him for being unfaithful. But the main conflict of the novel is in the clash of maximalism and pragmatism, reckless faith and calculation, which many call "the ability to live." The main creative sign of Lina Kostenko is intellectualism.

Out to the people

In the era of perestroika, the works of the poetess not only began to be published - her meritswere very much appreciated. In 1987, it was Kostenko Lina Vasilievna who received the Shevchenko Prize. The photo you see above captures what the laureate looked like that year. She was awarded this award precisely for the novel "Marusya Churai". The poetess also received many other awards. This is the international award of Petrarch (1994), and the Order of Yaroslav the Wise (2000). But she refused the title of Hero of Ukraine, sarcastically arguing that she "does not wear jewelry." Many of her collections and dramatic works came out, which did not see the light of day for many years. In 2010, her poem Berestechko was published, as well as the only prose novel, Notes of a Ukrainian Crazy Man, which caused a huge stir. Her collections of poems "Hyacinth Sun" and "The River of Heraclitus" were the most popular.

Modern Lina Kostenko

Autobiography is not the genre that inspired the poetess. In all her eighty-odd years, she never bothered to write anything like that. But in 2012, on April 9, on the birthday of Charles Baudelaire, the Ukrainian dissident writer Ivan Dzyuba presented a book about her life “There are poets for epochs”. The poetess continues to write poetry, trying to cover vast historical spaces, comprehend the paradoxes of culture and politics. She very keenly feels the disharmony of the world in which we all live, and expresses it in ironic aphorisms, with which she responds to topicality. “What is happening now,” the poetess philosophizes, “is a nightmare that humanity has dreamed of. Then it will be called history. And then add to the previousnightmares. “My ears bleed when I hear my people being abused.”

Apocalyptic motifs arise from such feelings in her poetry. But in the end, the work of Lina Kostenko is not aimed at despair and hopelessness, but at the desire for perfection, humanity, the desire to reach out to the mind and dignity of fellow citizens. “And whoever says whatever to whom, but the evil will perish and the truth will win!” she is sure. At one of the press conferences, the poetess expressed her old dream. Instead of writing political poetry, she would like to “draw birds with a silver pencil on linen.”