Kostenko Lina Vasilievna - Ukrainian poetess, who belongs to the so-called generation of the sixties. She had to go through many trials. She went into creative "hermitism." In her character, she could not even converge with the Ukrainian intelligentsia, whose core values she always upheld. 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 rare meetings with her. And every time when any outstanding event happens in Ukraine, the poetess responds to it with a sharp, and sometimes full of sarcasm aphorism.
early years
Kostenko Lina Vasilievna was born in the month of March, the 19th of 1930, in the city of Rzhishchev, near Kiev, in a family of teachers. Six years after her birth, the family moved to the capital of Ukraine. She lived on Trukhanovy island, which in those years was called the “Kiev of Venice”. During the fascist occupation, he was burned along with the village. She graduated from two universities - Kiev Pedagogical and Moscow Literary Institute - and in 1956 entered adult life. Already in those years, unofficially one of the most promising poets was called her, Lina Kostenko. The photo in the youth of our heroine shows her graceful figure, intelligent face and a bold look.
The Sixtieth
At first, the poet's poems were favorably received by critics. But, starting in 1961, they began to accuse her of being “non-political” and practically did not publish it, and critics of the then authorities more and more appeared in her work. Poems by Lina Kostenko began to be published in other countries - in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and were also popular in "samizdat." When in 1965 they began to arrest dissidents among the Ukrainian intelligentsia, she openly came out in defense of the persecuted in her characteristic outrageous manner. She wrote letters in defense of political prisoners, threw them flowers during the trial. Even then, the youth gave her a standing ovation, despite the danger of such an identification of feelings. Although Kostenko Lina Vasilyevna was not herself arrested and did not get interrogated, they simply ceased to notice her in the Soviet press. Her name was not mentioned, and she herself was included in the "black lists". The woman worked mainly "at the table."
Opal Art
Despite the fact that a proud Ukrainian poetess was gagged, it was during this period that she wrote her most famous works. First of all, these are the collections “Prince's Mountain” and “Above the Banks of the Eternal River”, as well as the novel in the poems “Marusya Churai”, the poem “Berestechko” and “The Duma of the Neazov Brothers”, the play “The Garden of Non-sculpting Sculptures”. In her poems, even the earliest, there is a deep philosophical implication. She easily overcomes the established literary stereotypes. The collection “Above 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 scammers in the tavern, because he prefers to express everything to the king in person. She enjoyed such a love of readers that even Soviet officials were afraid to touch her.
Images and Associations
In her works, Kostenko Lina Vasilyevna refers with thought 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, polemicizes 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 Maroussia Churai was an amazing success. This is a literary interpretation of the famous plot of 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 lies in the clash of maximalism and pragmatism, boundless faith and calculation, which many call "the ability to live." The main creative sign of Lina Kostenko is intellectualism.
Access to people
In the era of perestroika, the works of the poetess not only began to be published - her merits were very highly appreciated. In 1987, it was Lina Vasilyevna Kostenko who received the Shevchenko Prize. The photo you see above captures how that year the laureate looked. She was awarded this prize precisely for the novel Maroussia Churai. The poetess also received many other awards. This is the international Petrarch Prize (1994), and the Order of Yaroslav the Wise (2000). But she refused the title of Hero of Ukraine, sarcastically motivating with the fact that “she doesn’t wear jewelry”. Many of her collections and dramatic works have been released that have not been seen for many years. In 2010, her poem “Berestechko” was published, as well as the only prose novel, Notes of the Ukrainian Crazy, which caused a great stir. The most popular were her collections of poems “Hyacinth Sun” and “The Heraclitus River”.
Modern Lina Kostenko
Autobiography is not the genre that inspired the poetess. For all her eighty-odd years, she never bothered to write anything like that. But in 2012, on April 9, the birthday of Charles Baudelaire, the Ukrainian dissident writer Ivan Dziuba presented a book about her life, “There are poets for eras”. The poetess continues to write poetry, trying to cover vast historical spaces, comprehend the paradoxes of culture and politics. She very sharply feels the disharmony of the world in which we all live, and expresses it in ironic aphorisms, which respond to urgency. “What is happening now,” the poetess philosophizes, “is a nightmare that mankind has dreamed about. Then it will be called History. And then they add to the previous nightmares. ” “My blood comes out of my ears when I hear my people being offended.”
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 anyone there, but evil disappears and the truth wins!” She is sure. At one of the press conferences, the poetess expressed her old dream. She would not like to write poems with a political coloring, but "draw birds with a silver pencil on linen."