Ukrainian literature: the spiritual potential of women's creativity

Метою даного дослідження є аналіз феномена «жіноча література» з точки зору її духовного потенціалу в українській літературі. Звернено увагу на те, що саме сучасний літературний процес в Україні характеризується значною активізацією творчості жінок-авторок, що дало підстави критикам говорити про своєрідний духовний «ренесансної жіночої літератури». Про це свідчать численні праці В. Агеєвої, Т. Гундорової, С. Павличко, Є. Барана, Г. Грабовича, Н. Зборовської, Л. Пастушенко, Л. Таран, С. Філоненко та інших.

Імена Лесі Українки, Л. Костенко, О. Пахльовської, С. Йовенко, О. Забужко, Л. Таран, Е. Андієвської та багатьох інших наводять на думку про духовний та творчий потенціал жіночої літератури, яка характеризується неповторністю, оригінальністю, незалежністю та своєрідним жіночим поглядом на світ мистецтва.

Проаналізовано дискусії з питань про «жіноче письменство» в українській літературі, які виникли в результаті активізації фемінізму й «відкриття» літературознавцями-«феміністами» певної нерівності в літературознавчих дослідженнях чоловічих і жіночих текстів. Серед феміністок з'явилася ідея, що жінки писали й пишуть інакше, ніж чоловіки, тому стає необхідною теорія жіночої літератури й жіночого письменства.

У статті звернено увагу на те, що жіноча література - це соціокультурний феномен, що полягає в створенні жінками-авторками текстів, які мають передати специфічне жіноче світобачення, світосприйняття. Таким чином об'єктом жіночої літератури є «жінка сама по собі». Формуванню феномена жіночої літератури в межах національної літератури посприяв факт виходу жінки- авторки у публічну сферу. Зрозуміло, що багато негативної і неадекватної критики прозвучало на адресу жіночої літературної творчості.

Беручи до уваги слушні зауваження вітчизняних дослідників та критиків стосовно прикмет жіночої літератури, можна дійти висновку, що головним критерієм у визначенні жіночої літератури має бути саме біологічна стать авторки, оскільки лише вона є універсальною прикметою усіх творів, які відносяться до жіночої літературної творчості. Жіноча література - це художні твори, що були створені жінками-авторками. Жіноча література вміщає різні за жанром, стилем, а також різні за ступенем і мірою таланту та впливу на літературний процес тексти, яких об'єднує лише одна ознака - стать автора. Але репрезентація жіночої суб'єктивності не є центральним предметом художнього тексту в межах жіночої літератури.

Дослідивши специфіку духовного потенціалу жіночої творчості в українській літературі можемо стверджувати, що жіноча проза стала самобутнім явищем літературного процесу сьогодення, поява нових текстів дозволить далі розгорнути і поглибити концепцію жіночої лірики. Іншими словами, жіноча література існує як необхідність, спричинена історичною культурною ситуацією, а отже, реальний час і простір дає натхнення поетесам для створення нових художніх образів. Тема духовного потенціалу жіночої літератури залишається актуальною для досліджень і має перспективи для подальшої праці над нею.

Ключові слова: жіноча література, текст, концепція, фемінізм, критика.

Introduction

Statement of the problem. The modern literary process in Ukraine is characterized by a significant activation of the creativity of female authors, which gave reason to critics to talk about a kind of spiritual «renaissance women's literature». Interest in this phenomenon is evidenced by numerous works of researchers and literary critics (V Ageeva, T. Gundorova, S. Pavlychko, E. Baran, G. Grabovych, N. Zborovska, L. Pastushenko, L. Taran, S. Filonenko, etc.).

The names of prominent poets - Lesya Ukrainka, O. Teliga, Kostenko, O. Pakhlivska, S. Yovenko, N. Bilotserkivets, O. Zabuzhko, L. Taran, E. Andievska, M. Kiyanovska, etc. - testify to the spiritual and creative potential of women's literature, «the flowering of women's creativity, about the uniqueness of their talent, about the existence of «female», original, independent art», and in their work «a female view of self and female experience can be traced» [1, p. 178].

The purpose of this article is to analyze the phenomenon of «women's literature» from the point of view of its spiritual potential in Ukrainian literature.

Discussions about «women's writing» in Ukrainian literature date back to the end of the 19th century. The discussion arose as a result of the activation of feminism and the «discovery» by «feminist» literary critics of a certain inequality in the literary studies of men's and women's texts. Among feminists, the idea arose that women wrote and write differently than men, so a theory of women's literature and women's writing becomes necessary.

Recently, the process of defining femininity has begun, and interest in the question of distinguishing women's writing and how femininity affects creative female self-expression has increased accordingly [2]. The study of a number of female images in women's texts is particularly interesting. These images become qualitatively newer than those created by men.

Presentation of the main material of the research

The peculiarities of women's writing are connected primarily with the fact that women did not have their own tradition, in society they were deprived of any experience for a long time, which affected their creativity. The significant difference between women and men at various levels of literary practice has led to the fact that women gradually refuse to write like men. «The weight, gait, and rhythm of a man's mind are too different from a woman's for a woman to be able to successfully adopt something from him. It turns out some kind of grimace, so there is no point in trying» [2]. In addition, women cannot master the form of a sentence constructed by men, which is «too cross, heavy, gravity for women's use», so the woman forms the phrase herself, until it «acquires the natural form of her thought, without limiting or distorting it» [2]. Having her own specificity, the female author in her works often presents problems that are insignificant for men as much more important and, on the contrary, gives less importance to what is generally recognized as important. Therefore, women's works are often criticized, since it is difficult for a man to understand such an attempt to «change the world order». Among the many oppositions that have developed within the framework of the confrontation between the paradigms of the old and new worldviews, one of the important places was occupied by the opposition of the masculine and the feminine, which was concretized in the clash of feminist ideas with the patriarchal tradition.

Women's literature is a sociocultural phenomenon, which consists in the creation of texts by female authors, which should convey a specific female worldview, worldview. So, the object of women's literature, according to the definition of the Ukrainian researcher, writer and poet Oksana Zabuzhko, is «a woman by herself». The formation of the phenomenon of women's literature within the boundaries of national literature was facilitated by the fact that a female author entered the public sphere. It is clear that a lot of negative and inadequate criticism was directed at women's literary work.

According to the dictionary of gender terms, women's literature is «what is created in literature by women. But there is always... a controversy about women's creativity, that is, about the ability of women to create a spiritual product of high aesthetic quality, on an equal footing with men. The topic that affects women's creativity causes heated discussions - from complete denial to unquestionable recognition of this cultural phenomenon. One of the main arguments of opponents of the use of this concept is the assertion that there is only good and bad literature, which is not divided by gender and is neither male nor female» [3, p. 97].

In fact, the solution to this issue is complex and ambiguous. Let's start at least with the fact that in the created culture, the words «feminine» and «masculine» not only emphasize biological differences, but are also evaluative categories that are formed by society, fixed with the help of language in the consciousness of the public and the individual. At the same time, the word «feminine» acquires the connotation of «secondary», «worse», «derived from something», which is attributed to some primacy. The norm, the reference point in this case is always a man's pen, a man's gaze [3, p. 97].

A masculinist attitude prevails, and the phrase «women's literature» is perceived negatively, often humiliatingly or as an ironic label. Often, when considering the person of a writer, poetess, they use masculine words - writer, poet, artist. Consequently, a female author may be noticed, singled out, and even praised, but only as a capable writer with a masculine style.

According to Ukrainian researcher Tamara Gundorova, «gender-differentiated writing is a cultural fact». And at the same time, the researcher emphasizes that it is possible to talk about the expressive «sexuality» of writing when «in the text special emphasis is placed on those markers that are traditionally associated with gender» [4, p. 3], i.e., «tender modulations of writing» are clearly read. creating a «feminine» model of creativity [5, p. 19]. But here we are talking not so much about the biological determinism of authorship, but about the tender codes of writing, which are culturally constructed, so they can manifest themselves in different ways in the works of different authors or even in the work of one author. In turn, the Ukrainian literary critic Lyudmila Taran notes that there is literature written by women, and literature that «articulates the female experience itself. Let me clarify: to the first I include those that conform to the stereotypes of traditional writing and depict the world of a woman as something that cannot be thought of outside the world of men, to the second - works that depict a woman's self-sufficiency» [6, p. 18]. Different views of scientists on the peculiarities of women's literary creativity make it possible to distinguish two approaches to the definition of this specificity. Proponents of the first approach tend to see the difference of women's literature in the specific female experience, which is expressed at the level of problems, themes and ideological direction of the work. The second approach is based on the assumption that a sign of women's literature is the special sound of the «female voice» in the text, that is, at the level of writing.

Among the representatives of the so-called first approach, O. Zabuzhko, N. Zborovska, S. Filonenko, and others can be singled out. It is quite logical that a female author seeks to convey various aspects of authentic female experience in her text. Such a Ukrainian writer, poet, philosopher and critic O. Zabuzhko notes that due to the limitations of the dominant tradition dictated to the woman- author, an important existential part of her personal human experience has no expression. She says that for her personally, women's literature is that which is «written from the position of a woman who is aware of herself precisely as a woman, who talks about her female experience» [7, p. 19]. O. Zabuzhko sees the differences between women's and men's literature in «the way of modeling the artistic world», which is conditioned by two levels of artistic perception of the world - lyrical, «internal», and epic, «external»: «the first is female, the second is male» [8, p. 234]. The opinion of researcher Nila Zborovska, who believes , that among the features of women's writing as a way of articulating women's experience, the defining ones are «a frank conversation about one's body and sexuality, which became the basis of an autobiographical plot; reflections of a woman's personal experience in the context of the experience of a woman's life; the conscious and unconscious opposition of a woman's private world to a man's, a woman's creative personality - male creative personality...» [9, p. 6]. The reasoning of Svitlana Filonenko, who, defining features of female letters, calls tours in conscious female authorship, presentation of the image of a woman as a protagonist and «problematized gender identity of a female heroine» [10, p. 29]. Therefore, it is possible to claim with full right that the attempt to articulate women's experience in a literary text presupposes a different model of the world from men's, and therefore - the choice of appropriate issues, methods of revealing the topic of artistic Ukrainian scientists are representatives of the second approach, denying the legitimacy of singling out women's literature solely on the basis of content aspects of the work. Instead, they note the specific use of language in the text, that is, the distinctiveness of women's texts at the level of writing. women literature female ukrainanian

In this regard, Tamara Gundorova expressed the opinion that the gender of literature can be manifested only at the level of writing, and that there is a difference between «masculine» and «feminine» writing as «certain matrices that can be recognized and modeled» [1, р. 2]. The researcher comes to the conclusion about a certain «stylistic» unity of women's literature and names among the properties of women's writing, «irrationalism, emotionality, concentration more on deep emotional processes, on states of mind than on extensive "conquests" of the wide surrounding world, fastidious associativity, emphasized attention to "trifles", to what is insignificant in the context of the male value hierarchy» [11, р. 192].

It is undeniable that there are not only male writers, but also female writers, not only poets, but also poetesses. If there are women poets with their own separate inner world, a special worldview, then the term «women's lyrics» has the right to exist (as an addition to the already established concept of «women's prose»).

O. Zabuzhko believes that the history of Ukrainian women's literature, and in particular lyrics, should begin «with one poem of 1575, written by the Lutsk noblewoman Olena Kopot- Zhoravnytska» [10, р. 11].

Taking into account the valid remarks of domestic researchers and critics regarding the signs of women's literature, we can come to the conclusion that the main criterion in defining women's literature should be the author's biological sex, since it is the only universal sign of all works that belong to women's literary creativity. Women's literature is works of art created by female authors. Women's literature includes texts that differ in genre and style, as well as in the degree and measure of talent and influence on the literary process, which are united by only one feature - the gender of the author. But the representation of female subjectivity is not the central subject of the artistic text within the framework of women's literature.

Conclusions

Since recently women's literary creativity has become significantly more active, and women's prose has become a distinctive phenomenon of today's literary process, we think that the appearance of new texts will allow us to further develop and deepen the concept of women's lyrics. In other words, women's literature exists as a necessity caused by the historical and cultural situation, and therefore, real time and space gives inspiration to poets to create new artistic images. The spiritual potential of women's literature exists because there are representatives of women's creativity, new works for research, as well as various classifications of women's works are introduced, and most importantly for the further development of the phenomenon of women's literature, which is beginning to build a tradition of women's creativity.

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