Abstract:
The relevance of the article stems from the demand for rethinking Natalia Kobrynska’s
prose and therefore her position in the Ukrainian literary canon. On the one hand, Kobrynska’s artistic
searches reflect the development path of fin de siècle Ukrainian literature (realistic and modernist
writing). On the other hand, some issues and themes in Kobrynska`s prose are actually ahead of her
time (conceptualizing the Other, identity construction through power discourses, interrelation of
power and knowledge, Kobrynska`s writing ecological impulses and so on). The paper was written
within the framework of identity studies; the key issue is the tension between a construction and
a choice. The aim of the paper is to demonstrate that Kobrynska’s characters’ identity is the result
of their choices rather than their belonging to society. To conclude, Kobrynska has discovered the
most appropriate ways of representation of society’s members at the time in which social relations
collapse and emergence.
