From the Plow to the Pen: Public Perception of Ukrainian–Language Writers of Peasant Origin from Dnieper Ukraine at the turn of the 20th century

Abstract

The article examines the public response to the phenomenon of the writing practices of a wide range of both prominent and little–known Ukrainian–language authors of peasant origin from Dnieper Ukraine at the turn of the twentieth century. Regardless of the level of education and professional competence, main occupation and place of residence, they tried to realize their intellectual potential and find their niche in the social space of literary production, developing a nuanced self–perception as ‘peasants’, ‘Ukrainian authors’, and ‘writers’. The theoretical self-perception of the study draws on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of ‘literary field’ and his idea about the ‘semantic blurring’ of the notion of the ‘writer’. Using archival and printed sources (ego–documents, censorship records and periodicals), the author analyzes the specific features of the public perception of Ukrainian writers of peasant background through a threefold lens of power relations as bearers of a vulnerable social identity in the space of gaining access to cultural production; as representatives of the Ukrainian literary field in the realities of imperial claims to cultural dominance; and as literature producers in relations with cultural agents that shaped their recognition and status as writers.