Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko ( ua, Григорій Квітка-Основ'яненко, 29 November 1778 – 20 August 1843) was a
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
writer, journalist, and playwright. Founder of Ukrainian classicist prose. He was born in the vicinity of
Kharkiv
Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Kharkiv
Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine. He adopted the pen name "Osnovianenko," a reference to the village of his birth, when he embarked on his literary career.
In 1812, G. F. Kvitka-Osnovianenko begins his social activities. He was appointed the director of a new regular lay theatre open in Kharkov. Kvitka-Osnovianenko carried his love to theatre through all his life. Later this feeling made him write theatre drama works. In 1841, he wrote his marvellously interesting "Kharkov Theatre History".kharkov.vbelous.net/english/famous/fam-art/kvitka.htm
Kvitka-Osnovianenko was one of the earliest proponents of Ukrainian as a literary language and began publishing in the first Ukrainian literary journals printed in Kharkiv in the early 19th century. Like most of his contemporaries in the Ukrainian literary scene, he also wrote in Russian. He corresponded respectfully with
Taras Shevchenko
Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko ( uk, Тарас Григорович Шевченко , pronounced without the middle name; – ), also known as Kobzar Taras, or simply Kobzar (a kobzar is a bard in Ukrainian culture), was a Ukraine, Ukrainian p ...
, keeping up constantly with literary life. He was a friend of
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...
, and it is possible that Gogol's play ''
The Government Inspector
''The Government Inspector'', also known as ''The Inspector General'' ( rus, links=no, Ревизор, Revizor, literally: "Inspector"), is a satirical play by Russian dramatist and novelist, Nikolai Gogol. Originally published in 1836, the pla ...
'' was inspired by Kvitka-Osnovianenko's satiric drama ''The Visitor from the Capitol or Turmoil in a District Town,'' which has a very similar plot and cast of characters.
His Ukrainian-language works were mostly
burlesque
A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.
and
satirical
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...
in nature, but he also wrote more serious prose, such as his sentimental
novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...
''Marusia.'' He started Ukrainian classicist prose with the novella ''Marusia''. According to his own statement about the novella, he wrote it "to prove to one unbeliever that something gentle and touching can be written in the Ukrainian language."
He also tried his hand at the gothic genre with his "Dead Man’s Easter"Krys Svitlana ''Between Comedy and Horror: The Gothic in Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnov''ianenko’s Dead Man’s Easter (1834). ' Slavic and East European Journal (SEEJ) 55.3 (Fall 2011): 341-358'' (1834).
Historical Novels
From the historical works of interest are the “Historical and Statistical Outline of Slobozhanshchina” (1838), “On the Sloboda Regiments”, “Ukrainians” (1841) an (1841).
In the 1830s, Kvitka composed a fantastic lyrical story about the founding of the city of Kharkov in the middle of the 17th century with his ancestor Andrei Kvitka. This story, published in his collected works, is not supported by any source and has never been seriously considered by any historian.
The most famous works
* «Конотопська відьма» (
The Witch of Konotop
''The Witch of Konotop'' ( uk, Конотопська відьма) is a satirical fiction story by Ukrainian writer Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko written in 1833 and published in 1837 in his second book of "Little Russian (Ukrainian) stories".
Th ...
Films based on his works:
* The Courtship at Goncharivka (1958)
* Shelmenko the Myrmidon (1910, 1911, 1957)
* Shelmenko the Myrmidon (1971)
* The Witch (1990, 2 a; based on the story "The Witch of Konotop")
Documentary films about Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko
Kvitka-Osnovianenko's literary achievement has tended to be a polarizing subject for critics of Ukrainian culture. On the one hand, as one of the first popular writers to use the Ukrainian language, he is viewed a founding figure of Ukrainian literature. On the other hand, many prominent Ukrainian scholars, including
Ivan Franko
Ivan Yakovych Franko (Ukrainian: Іван Якович Франко, pronounced ˈwɑn ˈjɑkowɪtʃ frɐnˈkɔ 27 August 1856 – 28 May 1916) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, social and literary critic, journalist, interpreter, economist, ...
,
Mykola Zerov
Mykola Kostiantynovych Zerov (Ukrainian: Микола Костянтинович Зеров; 26 April 1890, in Zinkiv, Poltava Governorate – 3 November 1937, in Sandarmokh, KareliaDmytro Chyzhevsky
Dmytro Ivanovych Chyzhevsky (Дмитро Іванович Чижевський, sometimes transliterated as Dmitri Tschizewsky or Dmitrij Tschizewskij) (March 3, 1894 – April 18, 1977) was Ukrainian-born scholar of Slavic literature and t ...
, viewed his work as reactionary and conservative and were skeptical of the sentimental, pastoral image that he painted of Ukraine and Ukrainians.