Золотая ручка: дамская литература XVIII-XIX вв.

Remember Marusja Čuraj , the legendary folk heroine who was the subject of our first post? Her reputation in Ukrainian literature and culture would seem to be based upon the enormous popularity that she garnered in the romantic era when Marusja was featured in several literary works, including a tale in Ukrainian by H. F. Kvitka-Osnovjanenko (1834) and one in Russian by A. A. Šachovskoj (1839). Marusja was also the subject of a children's story authored by the well-known woman writer "Marko Vovčok" (a pseudonym for Marija Aleksandrovna Markovič, née Vilinskaja, 1833-1907). Her tale, entitled "Marusja" (1871) was widely translated. This is the  cover of the French edition  (1878) – from which Vovčok's own name was omitted! O, students , so many projects come to mind! Why not research the context of this story's writing and publication , for example? Was it really written in Paris in the 1860s – and in Ukrainian – as alleged on the Ukrainian Wikip...

Anna Ivanovna V el' jaševa-Volynceva , next on our list, was born in 1755. She thus belongs to an era subsequent to that of Mavra Šepeleva , so we'll flag her with an asterisk (*) as we take this opportunity to indulge in a little chronological change of pace . Anna Ivanovna ' s literary activity overlapped with that of her sister Pelegeja Ivanovna , who will be the subject of our next post . Golicyn furnishes two distinct entries for Anna (46-47) and for Pelegeja (47), without explicit ly indicat ing that they were related, although the sisters’ unusual last name and matching patronymics suggest a familia l connection that is borne out in other sources. As was the case with most of the women writers who managed to publish their work in eighteenth-century Russia , the Vel ' jašev a -Volyncev a sisters belonged to a literary family . Their father, notes Golicyn, was a " general major of the artillery and writer " by the name of Ivan A...