Volume 12 - Issue 67
/ July 2023
305
http:// www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.67.07.27
How to Cite:
Horbolis, L., Kobylko, N., Rudenko, S., Veretiuk, T., & Antonovych, S. (2023). Discourse of disease in Lesia Ukrainka’s
epistolary. Amazonia Investiga, 12(67), 305-316. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.67.07.27
Discourse of disease in Lesia Ukrainka’s epistolary
Дискурс хвороби в епістолярії Лесі Українки
Received: May 29, 2023 Accepted: July 18, 2023
Written by:
Larysa Horbolis1
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4775-622X
Nataliia Kobylko2
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8123-4156
Svitlana Rudenko3
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8691-8968
Tetiana Veretiuk4
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3985-1529
Svitlana Antonovych5
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8553-820X
Abstract
The article deals with peculiarities of a writer’s
experience of long-term illness, the influence of the
disease on rhythm, lifestyle and creativity, based on
Lesia Ukrainka’s letters of 1883-1913 to relatives,
friends, acquaintances, artists, and public figures. It
is found out that the internal picture of the disease
has been reflected in the letters with the help of the
system of writer’s diverse experience, feelings, and
emotions. According to the epistolary, Lesia
Ukrainka perceived the disease as a yoke, captivity,
which prevented her from being proactive, from
taking an active part in cultural, artistic, publishing
and translation activities. At the same time, the
disease built up a discipline, purposefulness of the
writer, who worked hard at her educational and
intellectual level, in such way cognized her
capabilities, outlining the prospects of creativity.
The article reveals peculiarities of the disease,
changes in the writer’s well-being, focuses on
creativity as an active resistance to the disease, as a
way of achieving self-esteem. The culture of work
and rest, attention to the sick body, her scrupulosity
in the performance of medical procedures
contributed to the creation of acceptable conditions
1
Doctor in Philology, Professor, Sumy State Pedagogical University named after A. S. Makarenko, Faculty of Foreign and Slavonic
Philology, Department of Ukrainian Language and Literature, Ukraine. Researcher ID: AAD-3345-2022
2
Candidate of Philological Sciences (Ph. D.), Associate Professor, Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs, Faculty No 6,
Department of Social and Humanitarian Disciplines, Ukraine. Researcher ID: AGY-4382-2022
3
Candidate of Philological Sciences (Ph. D.), Professor, State Biotechnological University, Faculty of Management, Department of
Language Training, Ukraine. Researcher ID: HGT-9585-2022
4
Candidate of Philological Sciences (Ph. D.), Associate Professor, H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University,
H.F. Kvitka-Osnovianenko Ukrainian Language and Literature Faculty, Leonid Ushkalov Department of Ukrainian Literature and
Journalism, Ukraine. Researcher ID: ABD-9950-2021
5
Candidate of Philological Sciences (Ph. D.), Associate Professor, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, School of Philology,
History of Ukrainian Literature Department, Ukraine. Researcher ID: AGY-4685-2022
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for creative work, which performed a therapeutic
function in the life of the writer.
Keywords: epistolary, internal picture of the
disease, psychology of creativity, drama, body,
literary process.
Introduction
The appeal of literary critics to the epistolary of
Ukrainian writers is caused by importance of a
number of problems related to theoretical,
historical, literary and biographical aspects.
Letters are a powerful material for creating a
holistic portrait of an artist, forming the idea of
creative laboratory secrets, finding out the facts
of personal life, temperament, interpersonal
relations, the writer’s psychological state, as well
as the formation of a complete picture of the
cultural and artistic movement, the literary
process, etc.
In the letters of 1883–1913, Lesia Ukrainka
records not only the facts of public, literary and
personal life, but also reproduces the course of
her illness. Analyzing the writer’s epistolary, we
start from the concept of “internal picture of the
disease”, which allows us to reveal fully her
character and emotional experiences. The
creative process directly depends on the state of
the poet’s health: when the disease recedes, Lesia
Ukrainka revives and becomes more active in
public life, she writes and publishes a lot, and
vice versa – the exacerbation of the disease
prevents creative realization. We find a lot of
medical terms, names of physiological processes,
procedures and methods of treatment in the
letters. A serious illness has effect on the choice
of topics, images of poetry and leading motives.
Theoretical basis
Long time Ukrainian writers’ epistolary is of
great interest to scholars. That is attested by
systematic studies of the theoretical orientation
of Zhanna Liakhova (Liakhova, 1996, р. 85-91),
Liudmyla Morozova (Morozova, 2006). As well
as works on the writers’ epistolary of the XVI –
beginning of the XVII centuries (Nazaruk, 1994),
the second half of the XIX – beginning of the XX
centuries (Ilkiv, 2016), 20-50s of the XX century
(Kuzmenko, 1998), the second half of the XX
century (Mazokha, 2006). A number of thorough
scientific publications are devoted to the letters
of Ivan Kotliarevskyi, Taras Shevchenko,
Panteleimon Kulish, Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi,
Pavlo Tychyna and others. Researchers choose
different angles of studying epistolary – cultural-
historical, psychoanalytic, intimate, they also
research letters as a component of a
documentary-artistic tradition, as an important
segment of cultural-artistic and literary contexts.
Nowadays many issues of the Ukrainian writers’
epistolary heritage remain open and need to be
studied applying an interdisciplinary approach,
current methodology and involving little-known
and unknown sources from public and private
archives.
Lesia Ukrainka’s epistolary has been of interest
to theorists, literary historians and textual critics
for many decades. For example,
Vitalii Sviatovets (Sviatovets, 1981) researched
the aesthetic component of the letter, comparing
the writer’s epistolary to her creativity. Lesia
Ukrainka’s letters in the book by Ivan Denysiuk
and Tamara Skrypka “Noble Nest of the
Kosaches” (Denysiuk, Skrypka, 1999) are used
as important factual material; Lesia Ukrainka’s
letters in the works of Solomiia Pavlychko
(Pavlychko, 1999; Pavlychko, 2002) are studied
in a psychological way. The epistolary dialogue
of Lesia Ukrainka and Olha Kobylianska as a
manifestation of female friendship is presented in
Vira Aheieva work “Female space: Feminist
discourse of Ukrainian modernism” (Aheieva,
2008). Lesia Ukrainka and Olha Kobylianska
correspondence is presented like “female
platonic novel” in Tamara Hundorova’s work
“Femina melanholica. Gender and culture in the
gender utopia of Olha Kobylianska”
(Hundorova, 2002). Larysa Miroshnichenko in
her work “Lesia Ukrainka. Life and Texts”
(Miroshnichenko, 2011) highlighted the textual
aspects of Lesia Ukrainka’s letters. Valentyna
Savchuk presented the history of collecting and
publishing epistolary legacy of Lesia Ukrainka,
analysis of published letters in the source and
textual aspects in the monograph “The Fate of
Lesia Ukrainka’s Letters” (Savchuk, 2011).
Serhii Mykhyda (Mykhydа, 2012) made an
attempt to reconstruct the psychological portrait
Horbolis, L., Kobylko, N., Rudenko, S., Veretiuk, T., Antonovych, S. / Volume 12 - Issue 67: 305-316 / July, 2023
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of Lesia Ukrainka, as a modernist. The letters as
a psychological text and narrative features of
epistolary dialogue of Olha Kobylianska and
Lesia Ukrainka are discussed in the monograph
“Intimate discourse of the writers’
correspondence of the second half of XIX –
beginning of XX century” by Anna Ilkiv (Ilkiv,
2016).
Methodology
The article applies a systemic-descriptive
method, which is allowed for a comprehensive
characterization of the writer's epistolary, in
which the discourse of illness is represented; the
biographical method contributed to
understanding the unity of the writer's life and
work; the cultural-historical method was applied
to comprehend the specificity of the historical
era; the principles of hermeneutics, receptive
aesthetics, and comparative approach facilitated
the study of stages and specifics of the course of
illness, told in the letters of Lesya Ukrainka.
Results and discussion
As we can see, Ukrainian epistolography is
dominated by works in which Lesia Ukrainka’s
letters are studied in a psychoanalytic way. The
objects of this study are Lesia Ukrainka’s letters
of the 1876-1913 at full length (published in 3
volumes at the Publishing House “Komora” in
2016-2018), which contained long-term
resistance to the disease that has affected on
quality of life, creativity, formation of life
guidance, views on the writer’s place in
literature, etc. The information about her illness
recorded in Lesia Ukrainka’s epistolary is an
important segment of cognition of the
psychological type, the writer’s creative
laboratory, as she noted in a letter to Olha
Kobylianska dated May 29-30, 1899,
paraphrasing Goethe, “who wishes to understand
the poet must go to the poet’s clinic”. In this
article the key theses on the impact of the disease
on the life and creative work of Lesia Ukrainka
are formulated on the basis of a summary of
numerous facts from Lesia Ukrainka’s letters,
which (in view of the article volume) are
presented in fragments. The thematically close
quotations stated in the material testify not only
chronology, but also peculiar continuity of the
problem raised in the letters, its long-term
“presence” in the complex system of the writer’s
experiences.
In spite of censorship, letters for Lesia Ukrainka
were an active channel of communication not
only with relatives, but also with cultural and
artistic movement in general, because she had
been far from home – abroad, for a long period
of time, and regularly reported about her health,
as well as creative, publishing, and public affairs.
Besides, the writer did not have a diary. Dialogic,
emotional and informative connection with the
world is the main argument in favor of Lesia
Ukrainka’s epistolary. In addition, the primary
role was played by an external factor – the
disease took her time even to write letters, and
therefore, diary was out of question. For Lesia
Ukrainka letters were an opportunity to be heard,
to speak of the disease, to share creative plans, to
discuss literature and ways of its development
with Ivan Franko, Olha Kobylianska, Mykhailo
Pavlyk, Ahatanhel Krymskyi, Nadiia
Kybalchych and others. Sincerely and as
truthfully as possible Lesia Ukrainka wrote about
her illnesses, pain, and general health, trying to
hide nothing in the letter to Olena Pchilka, “dear
mammy”, in such way called always by her
daughter. Only a few times, in 1901 when blood
began to flow from the throat. In 1902 when
pulmonary tuberculosis was suspected. In 1903
when “insomnia and nerves were stuck, the
temperature was over 37C” (Ukrainka, 2018,
р. 41) and it was necessary to use morphine and
chloral hydrate to have a rest, Lesia Ukrainka
kept silence about her health not to disturb her
relatives. In different periods of her life and
illness she had “trustees” to obtain truthful
information about her health, they were
Mykhailo Drahomanov, Mykhailo Pavlyk,
Antonina Makarova, Olha Kosach (a sister),
Olha Kobylianska and Mykhailo Kryvyniuk.
Such ethical and personal approach in
correspondence testifies to the culture of feelings
and emotions of Lesia Ukrainka that was formed
in difficult circumstances, her willingness to
share intimacy only with like-minded people
who would accept her thoughts with
understanding.
The history of illness is reflected in the epistolary
of Lesia Ukrainka quite fully, along with the
recorded facts of personal, literary, public life of
the writer, as well as her relatives and
acquaintances. Psychologists actively use the
term “internal picture of the disease”, that is
conscious or unconscious reflection of physical
condition in the human psyche. The scientists are
convinced that the internal picture of the disease
depends on the patient’s personality, his general
cultural level, social environment, upbringing
and is formed under the influence of knowledge
about the disease. All these factors should be
taken into account when someone studies Lesia
Ukrainka’s letters, considering that a lot of those
things, that has been felt and experienced were
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left unwritten, because physical pain (often
unbearable) cannot be described and fully
expressed even by such a talented person as Lesia
Ukrainka.
The writer noted that she had “an extremely
Ukrainian and even special Volyn nature”
(Ukrainka, 2017, р. 125). And in another letter
she stated: “I start to believe in my nature – quite
enduring” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 166). “Optimism
and pessimism, as I am convinced, depends
mostly on temperament” (Ukrainka, 2016,
р. 226), and added: “Who knows, whether I have
so much optimism by nature, or there is another
reason…” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 317). Admirers
and researchers associate Lesia Ukrainka with a
strong-willed and always optimistic person.
However, the letters somewhat destroy this
established idea. Her health-correlated optimism
was focused on creative activity: when the
disease receded, Lesia Ukrainka revived and
became more active in art, public life, she wrote
a lot, published, and vice versa – exacerbation of
the disease caused pessimism, hysteria, anxiety,
because the disease took away precious time
needed for active work, hinders creative
fulfillment. Lesia Ukrainka’s letters of 1883-
1913 speak about pain in her arm, legs, and
kidneys, about nervous disorders and extreme
weakness, about the fact that she cannot sit for a
long time. “My leg is not good, it is getting worse
and worse” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 104). “The leg
gives trouble as always” (Ukrainka, 2016,
р. 404), that “walking and riding are equally
difficult” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 259). “My health is
so-so” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 396), and even
“nerves begin to go out of obedience” (Ukrainka,
2016, р. 427), “start again from the beginning”
my tuberculosis epic and because of it my energy
does not increase” (Ukrainka, 2018, р. 372).
Generally, Lesia Ukrainka is quite restrained in
concluding about her health. “... if it were not an
anemia, it would be very good, well, but finally
it’s okay – if it can’t be absolutely good, then let
it be at least not bad” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 330).
However, the information received from doctors
about the disease (tuberculosis of the kidneys)
was described in details in letters to her mother
and sister Olha (who was a doctor) in late 1907 –
early 1908.
Duration of the disease, long-term palliatives
formed in Lesia Ukrainka awareness of disease
chronicity, which had to be accepted and taken
into account during life: “it (sick leg. – L. H.)
cannot be the same like in other people. It has
shortening and chronic dislocation, because after
all the bones in it are not as they should be and it
cannot be cured” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 277).
Subsequently, tuberculosis is spreading rapidly
to the lungs, kidneys. Lesia Ukrainka understood
that she had seriously – physically and morally –
to prepare herself for a long-term struggle with
pain and illness for the sake of life and creativity.
After the conclusion about renal tuberculosis and
ways of its treatment, she remarks in a letter to
the Hrinchenkos, dated February 21, 1908. “The
worst prospect for me is that I have to live the rest
of my days in a foreign land, because renal
tuberculosis demands a very dry and hot climate,
but where can I get it in Ukraine?” (Ukrainka,
2018, р. 372). The topic of the foreign land
bothered Lesia Ukrainka constantly, this fact
evidenced in her letters (“And the worst is that I
dislike abroad. Despite the fact that I have lived
there for a long time, I have not got accustomed
to it” (Ukrainka, 2018, р. 443). “Who doesn’t
need to go to foreign country, even a beautiful
one, is the happy one, though not always aware
of his happiness” (Ukrainka, 2018, р. 452)), and
in her works (for example, poetry, dramas
“Boiarynia”, “The Orgy”, “Babylonian
Captivity”, etc.) and personal experience. The
treatments in resorts far from home were not only
a financial burden on the budget of Kosach
family, but they also exhausted Lesia Ukrainka
emotionally (lack of communication, inability to
be constantly active in literary, artistic, social,
political life, etc.). Such a long “context” of
circumstances was a kind of impetus for writing
a drama-extravaganza “Forest Song”, in which
she reported missing motherland in philosophical
symbolic key. The image of Mavka, which she
had “kept in mind” for a long time, which was
fascinated her “for ages”, was actualized abroad
(in the Caucasus, in Kutaisi). The writer called
the days of work on the “Forest Song” “the right
time”, which is somewhat paradoxical, because
this “right time” was provoked by nostalgia. Far
from home her identity was actualized and her
home became closer, more necessary, and more
understandable. It is possible that such a
powerful artistic work could appear in a short
time abroad. Having been in treatment abroad for
a long time, immersed in the disease, feeling its
destructive effect on the body, Lesia Ukrainka
turned in upon herself, into the understanding of
her body and its resources, prospects, although
not entirely happy. “Oh, it’s not so much fun to
stay all year alone, although there is clear sky and
blue sea!” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 158), – she wrote
it in a letter to Mykhailo Drahomanov, dated
September 3, 1891. Lesia Ukrainka was
experienced and tempered by distance, she
appreciated moral and financial support of her
relatives (when I am at home “I don’t feel
excluded in the world” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 161),
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and she reconsidered her relations with other
writers.
Lesia Ukrainka’s letters contain many medical
terms, descriptions of sensations, procedures (for
example, stretching), postoperative states (for
instance, during her staying in Berlin in 1899 and
preparation of a plaster device for walking), etc.
In such a way the internal picture of the disease
is captured, there is a holistic (with a body-
centered perspective) image of a strong and
disciplined patient who fights hard for the life,
wishes to make a complete recovery: “… I have
to fight for my life, and somehow …keep my
strength up” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 133). Lesia
Ukrainka expresses her hopes for recovery and a
conscious attitude to a long struggle with the
disease in her works. For example, in a letter to
Mykhailo Kosach, dated May 18, 1890, she
quoted a hopelessly reliable poem. “I am on a
steep flint mountain / I will lift a heavy stone, /
And, carrying that terrible weight, / I will sing a
merry song”, summing up: “I have about a dozen
such poems. So many topics and so little time!”
(Ukrainka, 2016, р. 100). So alone, with help of
her own intellect, efforts and work (of course, not
without the support of relatives) Lesia Ukrainka
created a safe space for herself. In the letters, she
described pain with varying degrees of severity
and duration (weak, aching, unbearable,
permanent, and temporary) – when she had pain
in the head, neck, arm, throat, lungs, leg, heart. “I
say more than once that my nature is “chronic”,
because really everything in me is chronic, both
illness and feelings. As anemia, tuberculosis,
hysteria, and friendship, love and hate”
(Ukrainka, 2017, р. 133), – she wrote it in a letter
to Olha Kobylianska, dated May 29-30, 1899.
Lesia Ukrainka described treatment in Kyiv, in
Kharkiv region by the folk healer Paraska
Bohush; in Berlin, she noted the results of
consultations with leading doctors in Italy,
Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and she
emphasized the changes in the course of the
disease. Here is, for example, how the state of
health was described after injecting a triple dose
of iodoform in Kyiv in the winter of 1897 and
using morphine to relieve pain. “It was a very
hard time, I hardly came to my senses and I
would not allow to do experiments like triple
doses of iodoform and other “forced” methods”
(Ukrainka, 2016, р. 426). The consequences of
iodoform for the weakened organism were severe
– “a seizure of forgetfulness with delirium”
(Ukrainka, 2016, р. 426). These are the states in
which the writer had to be in order to live and
work.
Lesia Ukrainka’s relatives helped her to endure
the unbearable pain, as well as correspondence
with close people and, of course, the hope for her
recovery. “I am going to stay in the hospital until
May (this is the period when the body had to
recover from the injection of iodoform in winter
1896 in Kyiv. – L. H.,), and then maybe this
devilry with my leg will pass forever” (Ukrainka,
2016, р. 426). However, there was a long
treatment ahead – difficult and exhausting. After
treatment in Kyiv, Lesia Ukrainka felled unwell,
she could not get up for a long time, that’s why
she wrote little, lying down and by pencil,
because she didn’t want to strain and tire her leg
by sitting at the table. The complexity of the
health situation and at the same time the
optimistic attitude of Lesia Ukrainka is expressed
in a laconic-categorical conclusion from her
letter to Mykhailo Kryvyniuk: “… I have to learn
walking…” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 440). It was
1897 and the 15 years of disease, and the next 15
years would not be less difficult for her body and
creativity years.
Captivity of illness has a detrimental effect on
well-being, way of life, creativity, even
handwriting: “…while rewriting (here and
further in the quote it is Lesia Ukrainka’s italics
– L. H.) for “Bukovyna” <...> two poems, then
laid down three times (to rest. – L. H.) – did
anyone hear that?” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 100),
“And my countless “topics”– What will be with
them, with my poor orphans?” (Ukrainka, 2016,
р. 100), “It is one more trouble, because of some
(here and further in the quote emphasis were
made by Lesia Ukrainka. – L. H.) unknown to me
reason, my handwriting becomes even worse
than it has been!!! It is said that misfortunes do
not come single” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 101). “I
don’t feel like writing, there is no balance of the
soul” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 116). “I feel that I have
somehow lost my temper and I’m sure that no
matter what I write, nothing but nonsense would
have appeared” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 161). “I lost
my mental balance, and here you have already
known there is no style” (Ukrainka, 2016,
р. 337), “I do not feel so good to be witty”
(Ukrainka, 2016, р. 399). This is a conscious,
recorded in numerous letters of the writer’s inner
understanding of the disease.
The operation in Berlin in 1899, which Lesia
Ukrainka hoped for, and called it the “last card”,
abruptly took away several months of her
creative life. Medical procedures required special
efforts from the patient. In her letters to her
family, she recalled that after the operation, the
dressings “were so hard that one could go crazy.
The last three nights I can sleep only with help of
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bromine and sulfonal, and first of all I could not
sleep without morphine. Delirium and all sorts of
such things did not give peace of mind to me or
to my mother <…>. Then my nerves were so torn
that I have been just afraid to write a letter not to
frighten people with my mood” (Ukrainka, 2017,
р. 105). “Lying on my back, very flat and low, in
plaster estate, this pose is not poetic and not
literary, so I do not write anything but letters
<…>. For such purely mechanical reasons, I
forgot that I am a writer” (Ukrainka, 2017,
р. 113). “…the pose was unfavorable, and the
mood was even worse, – I did not want to show
cowardice, so, all that remained was to keep
silent” (Ukrainka, 2017, р. 115).
According to the epistolary, Lesia Ukrainka was
not satisfied with “plant life”. She strove to work
– to write works of art, critical articles, to take an
active part in public and political life. Also to
translate and to publish books, to collect and
record folklore. To prepare for publication
Mykhailo Drahomanov’s works, to learn
languages, to discuss actively with progressive
writers and critics such as Serhii Yefremov, Ivan
Franko, Olha Kobylianska, Ahatanhel Krymskyi,
to visit theater to “learn all kinds of things”
(Ukrainka, 2016, р. 118). She wanted “to be
printed in order to be independent” (Ukrainka,
2017, р. 501). For her it was “far more interesting
than all these anemia, tuberculosis, boredom”
(Ukrainka, 2016, р. 416), because, she was
convinced, “my body, though bad, is stubborn
and capable of a great struggle” (Ukrainka, 2017,
р. 431). “One way or another – we will still fight!
I still have a long way to go and I think that the
worst (Lesia Ukrainka’s italics – L. H.) has
already passed” (Ukrainka, 2017, р. 437).
However, as we know from biography of the
writer, it did not pass and the disease progressed.
So, a letter to sister Olha Kosach, dated
September 10, 1909, convinces that the passion
to work does not disappear: “… I have a lot of
grandiose literary ideas right now and I would
like to delay the time of complete disability…”
(Ukrainka, 2018, р. 445). The writer had many
plans; she strove to fulfill herself, to tell the world
important things about literature, to explain to
Ukrainians who they are.
Lesia Ukrainka innate desire for self-fulfillment
(according to Charlotte Bühler) was supported by
her variety activities, which contributed to her
intellectual and cultural improvement, growth of
her ability to fulfill in difficult life circumstances,
with a seriously ill and exhausted body. The
writer read a lot, actively responded to notable
cultural and artistic events. She was a participant
and in-depth analyst of the Ukrainian and foreign
literary process, as evidenced, for example, by
articles “Two Directions in Modern Italian
Literature (Ada Negri and d’Annunzio)”, “New
perspectives and old shadows (A new woman of
the western European fiction)”, “Notes on the
latest polish literature”, “Utopia in fiction”. As
well as letters to Mykhailo Drahomanov, Olena
Pchilka, Ivan Franko, Mykhailo Pavlyk and
others. Creativity was a spiritual need for Lesia
Ukrainka, an opportunity to change reality by
adjusting to the course of disease, a way of self-
expression, self-affirmation and adaptation to the
social environment. Creativity increased the
level of her internal and external organization,
resisted disease, apathy and monotony of life.
While working, she felt needed. With the help of
her work, Lesia Ukrainka changed reality in
accordance to her views of the world, art, the role
and significance of an artist in society.
The works addressed to readers expanded Lesia
Ukrainka opportunities to be present in society,
to be active in literary and cultural life. With the
help of literary characters who are in extreme
situations, she sought to share with the public her
experiences of strangers, nostalgia, knowledge of
pain (physical and moral), loss, strength and
weakness, power and powerlessness. Enduring
another battle for health, to reveal herself to the
reader existentially, emphasizing the strong-
willed neo-romantic character (“In the Dense
Forest”, “Babylonian Captivity”, etc.) (Bodyk,
Horodniuk, Fedorova, 2022). Literary critic
Hanna Levchenko (Levchenko, 2013, р. 71)
notes the general constitutional tendency of the
poetess psyche to hysteria, introverted
intuitionism and enthusiastic steroid
accentuation of Lesia Ukrainka’s personality. It,
according to the researcher, led to the emergence
of images of mythologies and religions in her
lyricism, stylization of literary genres, to interest
to early Christianity in drama; steroid
accentuation of character influenced the formal
and semantic properties of the writer’s works. In
a letter to Osyp Makovei, dated June 9, 1893, the
writer noted that she wrote “mostly in those days
when I have some sorrow in my heart, the work
goes faster” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 201).
Lesia Ukrainka’s optimistic and pessimistic
mood and the productivity of her creative work
depend not only on her health, but also on the
seasons. “In winter my strength was failing a
little, but in summer I am optimistic as usual,
now more than usually” said in the letter to
Mykhailo Pavlyk, dated July 29, 1893. And in a
letter to Mykhailo Drahomanov, dated April 17,
1894, she added: “I used to believe in spring and
summer” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 276). The warm
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season suppresses the disease, promotes health
and strengthens the optimistic attitude of the
writer, “because I am more optimistic in life than
in my literature” (Ukrainka, 2017, р. 151). Lesia
Ukrainka went to the sea (the Crimea, Italy), to
the mountains in Bukovyna – and the diseases
subsided, nerves calmed down, anemia receded,
cough and fever did not bother.
We have already had the opportunity to note on
the basis of Lesia Ukrainka’s letters from the
“Crimean period” that the sea took an active part
in overcoming the writer’s illness; the sounds of
the sea (that was the music as unfulfilled desire
due to the disease) triggered the mechanism of
ignoring the disease, healing the soul and body.
“It is the sea, which helps Lesia Ukrainka to
block in her mind the information about the
destructive power of the disease, declares victory
over the troubles of life” (Horbolis, 2020, р.
188). Appealing to Lesia Ukrainka’s letters from
the Crimea, it is appropriate to speak of the
writer’s unsatisfied desires to be physically
healthy, happy, that are the driving forces of
fantasies, “and each individual fantasy is the
fulfillment of desires, the correction of
dissatisfied reality” (Freud, 2001, р. 111).
Thanks to the sea, Lesia Ukrainka hoped for a
significant improvement of health, which was
necessary for exhausting creative work. The sea
was an alternative therapy for the writer’s soul
and body.
It should be added that anxiety, restlessness,
emotional and physical exhaustion of Lesia
Ukrainka body are caused by family problems.
She worried about illnesses of her father and
husband Klyment Kvitka, difficult family
relationships due to sister Olha relations with her
fiancé Mykhailo Kryvyniuk, who was arrested in
1907. But, perhaps, mostly she worried of
relatives and friends deaths: uncle Mykhailo
Drahomanov (1895), beloved Serhii
Merzhynskyi (1901), brother Mykhailo Kosach
(1903), father Petro Kosach (1903) – too much
for a sick, but strong-willed person. In such
difficult periods of life, everyone wants to “lie
down and become a petrified” (Ukrainka, 2016,
р. 366), in such way the “hanging letters” were
appeared, as Lesia Ukrainka called them. They
are full of sadness, longing, despair and
hopelessness. The writer endures unbearable
pain and exhausting years of medical procedures,
but she can barely withstand the irreparable loss
of people infinitely dear to her. But the minutes
of despair pass, the pain of loss subsides.
During periods of turmoil, Lesia Ukrainka was
both strong and weak. She supported her sick
uncle and his family (at that time she lived in
Sofia); during her two-month stay in Minsk with
the sick Serhii Merzhynskyi, she was also
courageous and patient. “He loved my “stoicism”
(firmness) and did not tolerate “cowardice””,
Lesia Ukrainka wrote in a letter to her friend Vira
Kryzhanivska-Tuchapska (Ukrainka, 2017,
р. 415). Lesia Ukrainka’s letters describe in
detail her emotional state after Mykhailo
Drahomanov’s death: “I have now become
unsociable” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 370). “Every
night I am attacked by such attacks of the sadness
that I will one day go mad. I do not know when
it will end…” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 388). “My
friend, the anguish is so heavy…” (Ukrainka,
2016, р. 365) and so on. For a long time,
according to the letters, she could not accept the
death of her brother Mykhailo – she wrote little,
the answers to the letters of her friends were
delayed for a long time.
Every time accompanying her dear people in the
last way, Lesia Ukrainka found the strength to
recover. For example, after the death of uncle
Mykhailo Drahomanov, in her letters she noted.
“If it had been ancient times, I would have been
singing Lazar in letters, but now I will probably
get used to souring forever, last winter has
something changed in my nature. I don’t know
whether it turned out for good or for bad”
(Ukrainka, 2016, р. 347), “Actually, we (Lesia
Ukrainka’s italics – L. H.) must have power over
ourselves. He (Mykhailo Drahomanov – L. H.)
taught me how people suffer disaster and struggle
with the fate!.” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 261).
The bereavement of her beloved Serhii
Merzhynskyi, as has been known from Lesia
Ukrainka’s letters and creative biography,
became the impetus for writing “The Obsessed”,
a drama that was a powerful reaction of her soul
and body to the injustice, which took away her
love. It is a defense against death, loneliness,
against thoughts of death, it is a fact of
connection “which exists between basic organic
attitude of the author and that which is expressed
in her works” (Vygotskiy, 1998, р. 287). During
writing “The Obsessed” there was, according to
Sigmund Freud (Freud, 2001), the transition of
subconscious desires into artistic images, into
creative energy, so the internal mental conflicts
found a way out and they were fulfilled in the
work. “Art is a necessary discharge of nervous
energy and a complex method of balancing body
and environment in the critical moments of our
behavior,” – says Lev Vygotskyi (Vygotskiy,
1998, р. 279). Lesia Ukrainka’s drama of life and
personal experience were embodied in the drama
“The Obsessed” with the help of allegorical
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images, a corpus of deep philosophical problems.
So creativity became a kind of refuge for her
emotions.
The disease affected personal and creative life of
Lesia Ukrainka, changed attitude, guidelines,
values. Illness defiantly took away her music (her
dream was to play music professionally).
Although for a long time Lesia Ukrainka taught
others to play and continued to play by herself,
immersing herself in musical imagery,
explaining the complex world and herself in it.
Music therapy, as has been known from the
letters, alleviated her pain in Minsk at the bed of
sick Serhii Merzhynskyi.
Lesia Ukrainka did not intend to forget about
literature because of the illness, it was the last
outpost that gave meaning to live – she had
creative plans, as she mentioned, “for three lives”
and wanted to implement them successfully,
identifying herself with literature, productive
activity, not disease. Creativity made her free
from illness emotionally, thoughts of illness. It
was the creative work, which made Lesia
Ukrainka intellectually free from illness.
“Individual freedom is the highest value in the
coordinate system of Lesia Ukrainka, it is
associated with the concepts of “will”, “choice”
and “responsibility”, – notes rightly the literary
critic Lesia Demska-Budzuliak (
Demska-Budzuliak, 2009, р. 11).
The illness required from Lesia Ukrainka to be
attentive to her body, to take medication and
perform procedures carefully, adhere to the
regime and culture of rest and work. Letters of
different years prove discipline and obedience of
the patient Larysa Kosach. She has followed the
doctors’ prescriptions conscientiously, often
sacrificing creativity to please her body: not to
write a lot so as not to get tired, to write lying
down during periods of deteriorating of health, to
walk with a stick to avoid swelling of legs,
maintain health at resorts (the Crimea, Italy,
Egypt), not to be nervous. In her letters, Lesia
Ukrainka constantly expressed dissatisfaction
with such prescriptions, “medical bridles”, as she
called them. For example, she wrote: “I’m sitting
“smeared in the oven”… I hardly bargain for
permission to write letters” (Ukrainka, 2017,
р. 368), “I’m lying in plaster fetters” (Ukrainka,
2017, р. 107), “Sometimes I am so complaining
that one cannot gather me together …”
(Ukrainka, 2017, р. 106).
Despite constant attention to the body, Lesia
Ukrainka did not get the desired result: the leg
hurt not only in the cold season, but also in warm,
interfering to work, nervousness did not
disappear; another hard disease was added –
renal tuberculosis. Diseases ruthlessly took away
precious moments of creativity, full-fledged
communication with relatives, writer colleagues,
publishers, public figures. Lesia Ukrainka
identified the disease with a yoke in her letters,
and in the letter to Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, dated
May 12, 1910, she sadly stated about dramatic
poem “Rufin and Priscilla”: “I’m not sure that I
will have ever written so big (means the volume)
thing, because my strength is not return, and still
falling. I’m not able even to rewrite the same
thing for a second time” (Ukrainka, 2018,
р. 477).
Pleasing the body and loosing creativity had a
negative effect on well-being – so there was a
conflict with her body. Here is a brief chronology
of this dangerous feeling for every person, with
elements of despair, contempt, apathy, followed
by long-term (sometimes, unbearable) pain:
“When it (her leg. – L. H.) gets better, it will have
been a lot of water under the bridge. Well yes,
but now I wish it gets better enough that it will
not interfere with my life (our italics – L. H.), Oh,
if it is not my leg, I could do a lot in the world!”
(Ukrainka, 2016, р. 144). “I start getting tired of
caring about myself (what can I say! – I’ve been
tired of this for a long time), and I start
bargaining for the right to sit at the table for two
hours a day. Will I ever be free? After nine years
of captivity, I learned a lot of skepticism. And, I
wish at least for a year or two to be free from my
own yoke” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 148-149). “I am
sorry that I have to live like a hermit. I am of no
use to people or to myself, but the trouble keeps
me so. It would be better…if that desire and that
small talent went to someone else, more humane
one” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 160). “My leg has not
got better radically yet, and my insignificant
body and my 15 years’ illness are blamed of the
case that it will have to use a knife” (Ukrainka,
2016, р. 432). “If the devil hadn’t bedridden me
…” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 435). “…a disabled
person like me can make you even more sadness”
(Ukrainka, 2016, р. 438), “…because I’m so a
disabled person who does not want to show
herself in society” (Ukrainka, 2017, р. 127).
“Well, I am not so disabled as not to be able to
see people” (Ukrainka, 2017, р. 128). “Surgery is
killing my muse” (Ukrainka, 2017, р. 140).
“…while I’m here (in Berlin, after a complicated
operation – L. H.), I’m not a writer or even a
person. I’m a surgical orthopedic model …
“material”, not a person” (Ukrainka, 2017,
р. 141). “I am a disabled person, a lost to society,
I have no right (Lesia Ukrainka’s italics. – L. H.)
to finish myself” (Ukrainka, 2017, р. 384).
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“…finally, I am no longer a person, but a plant”
(Ukrainka, 2017, р. 386), “I have a lot of
grandiose literary ideas right now (this is about
the autumn of 1909 – L. H.) and I would like to
delay the time of complete disability…”
(Ukrainka, 2018, р. 445). “Now I am, to tell the
truth, a disabled person, I just do not want to bear
my title formally” (Ukrainka, 2018, р. 448-449).
From such a hopeless state for many people,
Lesia Ukrainka was saved by creativity, for her it
was the only way to restore self-esteem –
literature, because “when I write, I live”
(Ukrainka, 2017, р. 69), because “…trouble is
trouble, but deed is deed” (Ukrainka, 2017,
р. 102).
To fulfill herself, the artist looked for a
compromise with her body, because the level of
her creative activity did not decrease, the goal did
not disappear, control over the situation was not
lost, the degree of criticism and self-control was
not reduced (although, of course there were
moments of despair). According to the letters,
Lesia Ukrainka adjusted herself to getting used to
the pain: “Summer (we are talking about 1898. –
L. H.) is passing and I must in advance accept the
idea that such attacks of heat and leg pain will be
from time to time, because even in the Crimea
they have been” (Ukrainka, 2017, р. 69).
“Attacks of hysteria, weakness of heart… I will
soon get used to them” (Ukrainka, 2017, р. 89).
It seems that the writer does not fully understand
the danger of these manifestations of the disease.
The need to make concessions to the body was
also mentioned in the letter from San Remo to
Mykhailo Kryvyniuk. Apparently,
contemplating about nervous state of the patient
Larysa Kosach, caused by the inability to work
actively, the Italian doctor allowed her to write:
“… the luminary (a doctor – L. H.) reduced my
“working day” and from 6 hours left only 4!
Although he said that I should not give up the
literary work at all, because it can also harmful
influence into my psychology – but more than 4
hours I can’t work. “Well, what can I do for 4
hours?! I just don’t know what I should do in
such “expensive time”” (Ukrainka, 2018, р. 83).
As you know, creativity is an extremely complex
and exhausting process due to mental state,
external and internal factors. When the
subconscious dominates the consciousness,
when inspiration comes, intuitive creative
activity is optimized, the artist must release this
energy into a work of art, to fulfill it in an image,
idea, pathos, plot, etc. The classic (and what is
important – actually the author’s) illustration of
the creative act is the lines from Lesia Ukrainka’s
well-known letter to Liudmyla Starytska-
Cherniakhivska, dated May 29, 1912, where the
writer noted the state in which she had been
writing the drama-extravaganza “Forest Song”.
“I write “only in a fit of insanity,” because then I
can only fight (or rather forget about the fight)
with exhaustion, fever and other depressing
symptoms, when I am simply galvanized by
some idea fixe, some invincible force. The crowd
of images does not allow me to sleep at night, it
torments me like a new illness (our italics – L.
H.)” (Ukrainka, 2018, р. 589-600). This is a
powerful inner energy that should be released
and to protect creative personality. Otherwise,
the blocked creative potential disturbed the
author as an unspeakable desire, hurt like
physical pain, which was a complicated unstable
state of Lesia Ukrainka health. Her abilities and
talents were banned by doctors who did not
approve (limit the time) of her creative work not
to harm her health. However, as it already was
mentioned, creative energy could not be stopped.
And her failure to turn into a work of art turned
into an examination of the author, an inner
dissatisfaction, as evidenced by the eloquent
lines from her letter to her sister Olha Kosach,
dated November 28, 1899. “It is unpleasant to
think to myself that the day has passed in vain
again, I do nothing neither to me, nor to people
<…> I really got tired, when I’ve been writing
the abstract, etc., but that was, by the way,
healthier fatigue, healthier for both morally and
even physically… I cannot take a pen in hand,
but is it better when unwritten thoughts will not
let you sleep at night? <…> As for me, work is
like music, sometimes it serves instead of
mustard plaster (moral, of course). So, for
example, a month ago, if it was not for my
indefatigable, truly inhuman writing, interrupted
at times by sonatas and nocturnes, I might have
had seizures again, such were the
circumstances… So there were no seizures… I
know that it is very sublime to use literature
instead of morphine, but it is still better than to
use morphine instead of literature. This
“morphine” does not allow me to get dirty, sour
and sleepy – thanks it for that” (Ukrainka, 2017,
р. 168). For Lesia Ukrainka, literature becomes,
according to Sigmund Freud (Freud, 1998), a
means of reconciling two hostile principles – the
principle of pleasure and the principle of reality.
The writer strives for a full life, and creativity
(active, productive) heals her exhausted body,
appears as a “function of health and has its own
therapeutic effect” (Aheieva, 2007, р. 3). After
all, “the psyche is a single whole, and as a whole,
but with different activity of certain departments,
it protects its homeostasis in problematic life
situations” (Titarenko, 2009, р. 187). For Lesia
Ukrainka, such “problematic life situations”
were an illness and the ban on writing caused by
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it, which disorganized her life and work, and
caused fear of being unfulfilled. This is the “real
fear” that, according to Sigmund Freud, “seems
to be something rational and natural, it can be
called a reaction to the perception of external
danger. That is, the expected, anticipated
damage; it is associated with the escape reflex
and can be considered as a manifestation of the
instinct of self-preservation” (Freud, 1998,
р. 398). Fears of fulfillment constantly troubled
the artist, as evidenced by her works (for
example, “The Orgy”, “Forest Song”, etc.). Fear
did not leave the writer even in her dreams, as
stated in a letter to Lidiia Drahomanova-
Shyshmanova, dated October 2, 1896: “I dream
that my drama (“Blue Rose”. – L. H.) is playing
on the stage and I play the main role by myself…,
there is an act, there is an intermission, 1st, 2nd,
3rd, 4th – and the audience does not hear
anything (Lesia Ukrainka’s italics. – L. H.), after
all, it is the final, it is getting dark on the stage,
and the curtains are not lowered. I finally ask –
although I do not believe in the role: why do not
lower the curtains? Someone answers in a
sarcastic tone, “because there is no one in front
of!” I look: in the ground floor – “Arabian
desert”, empty boxes yawning black, I did not
have the courage to look at the gallery. My drama
failed…! And I scream in despair: whistle…!
You see, it is no longer applause, but at least a
whistle!.. But even this desperate call remains a
voice crying in the wilderness…” (Ukrainka,
2016, р. 414). It is significant that even in a
dream, in this liberated state of consciousness,
Lesia Ukrainka is involved in literature; it seems
a prophetic-symbolic dream about her drama,
about her, as an author, who has been not fully
understood by many critics and artists, “revered,
but not readable,” as she remarked about herself.
Creativity in Lesia Ukrainka’s life becomes a
psychological defense capable of overcoming
internal (for example, as it has already mentioned
conflict with the body) and external (the
impossibility of full participation in literary and
artistic life, especially during long stays abroad)
conflicts. It is well known that psychological
protection is “a system of mechanisms aimed at
minimizing the negative experiences associated
with conflicts that threaten the integrity of the
individual” (Titarenko, 2009, р. 186). Creativity
is a psychological protection, which resists
adverse circumstances actively, “unconsciously
protects him (a human – L. H.) from emotionally
negative overload” (Titarenko, 2009, р. 190) and
weakens the anxiety of Lesia Ukrainka.
Literature becomes for the writer a means of self-
regulation of her psychological state. In this
context, the study of the bioenergetics influence
of art seems promising, when rhythm harmonizes
the mental state of a person. Dmytro Ovsianyko-
Kulykovskyi’s opinion (Lev Vyhotskyi appeals
to it in his work “Psychology of Art”) about the
nature of lyrics that lifts the spirit, adjusts to the
positive, disciplines, calms the nervous system,
drives away fear and encourages the psyche.
“The harmonious rhythm of the lyrics creates
emotions that are differ from most other
emotions in that way, that they, these “lyrical
emotions”, economize psychic power by
bringing a harmonious order into the “mental
structures”” (Vygotskiy, 1998, р. 280). In the
process of creating the works (poetry, dramatic
poems, translations, etc.), Lesia Ukrainka’s body
and mental organization were “in a harmony”
with the verse size, the inner rhythm of the work
in this way so the artist continued resisting the
disease.
According to the epistolary, Lesia Ukrainka’s
attitude to treatment is deeply meaningful,
generally positive, even when her weakened
body has to endure morphine, bromine, sulfonyl
“and all this hell” (Ukrainka, 2017, р. 114). She
was an active patient, who was trying to
understand prescriptions of doctors, the nature
and effectiveness of medical procedures, the
effects of drugs on her body, as well as to
compare the findings of leading doctors in Italy,
Switzerland and Germany to understand the
prospects of recovery. Of course, during the
years of treatment she got tired with resorts,
medicines and doctors – those “benefactors of
humanity ... who “forget” tweezers in stomachs”
(Ukrainka, 2017, р. 131): “I’m full of doctors and
medicines” (Ukrainka, 2016, р. 82), “there is no
worse than a foolish doctor” (Ukrainka, 2016,
р. 325). However, she believed in the
effectiveness of treatment, medical procedures,
appointments, recommendations, is persistently
treated, “to live as a human (Lesia Ukrainka’s
italics. – L. H.), not as a creaking tree…”
(Ukrainka, 2017, р. 450). “It is impossible to live
as an idle in a sanatorium year after year, but I
must learn to “be healthy in normal conditions”.
I mean in conditions not of lying down, but of a
person” (Ukrainka, 2017, р. 501). Having got
sick when she was a child, Lesia Ukrainka had no
experience of quality (without disease) adult life,
but had a long experience of disease in different
circumstances. Being a sick for decades was
transformed into an experience of confronting
the disease that has changed Lesia Ukrainka, as
researcher Valentin Badrak stated “thoroughly,
what is called, to the information and energy
structure of cells” (Badrak, 2015, р. 6).
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The psychological component of Lesia Ukrainka
disease is determined by the writer’s attitude to
the illness (physical suffering, experience of
pain, etc.) and is understood from the position of
the writer’s reaction to the disease: being sick,
live with the illness and “participation” of the
disease in her life.
It is fully justified, we think, there are
associations with Friedrich Nietzsche, in whose
life, as we know, the disease is constantly present
and has led to action, it had an energy stimulus
has helped to open new facets of life, to plunge
into the life, understand the value and the cost of
many things (Neitzsche, 2005, р. 17). Creativity
was positioned as a value in Lesia Ukrainka’s
life, due to her disease, she cherished life and the
significance of it did not decrease with the course
of her illness. “The need to repel suffering leads
to a huge strain of the intellect, in which a person
begins to see everything in a new light, and
moreover – a person wishes to live”
(Yushchenko, 2013, р. 53). The Ukrainian writer
interprets the disease as a givenness with which
she has to live, to resist its active manifestations.
There are no complaints about what had
happened in Lesia Ukrainka’s letters. It looks
like the Nietzsche’s idea of “amor fati” is read out
in the text – love and respect to one’s destiny,
perception of everything that happens in life as
an opportunity to gain more experience. There
are no tragic moods, thoughts about death or
suicide in Lesia Ukrainka’s letters, on the
contrary, a high degree of vitality is read, the
conviction that there are no unsolvable problems,
and they can be solved by changing the attitude
to them. Sickness became a part of the writer’s
life; Lesia Ukrainka formed her understanding of
well-being, which was to be active in literary and
artistic life reflected in her attitude to life and
creativity. The artist created an image of the
world in which the dilemma of “to write or not to
write” did not exist. Difficulties, belief in her
strength formed her goals: to write, to publish, to
translate, etc. Lesia Ukrainka chose creativity,
focused on literature, forming creative plans for
the future. Having formed over the years the
ability to communicate constantly with the
disease, the writer consciously took the disease
to the background, adjusting to effective work
even in adverse conditions and circumstances.
Conclusions
Lesia Ukrainka’s epistolary is an important
document, which contains facts of personal life,
as well as information about cultural, artistic,
political, social realities of the end of the XIX
century – beginning of the XX century. It
diversely adds an image of the artist, traits of
character, peculiarities of psychological type,
makes more vivid specifics of her work, vision of
her creative laboratory, worldview, circle of
communication, spheres of interests, and also
informs about the disease with which the artist
had to live and fight to work actively in literature.
Against the background of an array of reports of
Lesia Ukrainka’s life, information about the
disease (features, symptoms, treatment, medical
procedures, prescriptions of doctors, etc.)
presented in letters to relatives, friends and
acquaintances is quite extensively.
Correspondence is an effective way to “speak”
about the disease, talk about it and thus reduce
the “degree” of pain.
Lesia Ukrainka’s epistolary of 1883-1913 is a
kind of primary source of feelings, inner
experience, emotional states of the writer; it is a
story of a long-term conscious resistance to the
disease. The discourse of the disease in letters
with a clear body-centered perspective forms a
psychological portrait of Lesia Ukrainka, an idea
of the culture of her feelings and emotions,
emphasizes the role of the body in the fierce
struggle for creativity and self-fulfillment. The
author of the letters interprets the disease as a
yoke, captivity, which prevents her from being
active in the literary process, public and political
life. The sickness corrects creative plans,
increases the level of self-organization of the
artist, and becomes a kind of verification of
opportunities for the writer, makes creativity as a
value that can provide the writer with self-
expression, self-affirmation, realization,
adaptation to the social environment. Lesia
Ukrainka identified herself with literature, but
not with disease.
Anxiety and fear of being unrealized, illness and
death of relatives and friends, long stay in the
treatments far from home had a negative impact
on the well-being and creativity of the Ukrainian
writer. Attention to the sick body, discipline in
following the prescriptions of doctors, the culture
of rest and work, the ability to find a compromise
with the sick body were aimed at the
effectiveness of creative activities. Lesia
Ukrainka’s intellect freed her from illness in her
work.
Bibliographic references
Aheieva, V. (2007). Poetic Visionaryism of Lesia
Ukrainka. Scientific notes of the National
University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”:
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