On the Issue of Re-dating Lesya Ukrainka's Letters

Abstract

Lesya Ukrainka's letters have been regularly published since 1911. Still, in the
lifetime of the addressee, M. Pavlyk, compiling selection of Correspondence of
Mykhailo Drahomanov with Mykhailo Pavlyk, included to it some short letters of the
poetess. Subsequently, many of her epistolary texts were published in scientific
collections and periodicals in Ukraine and abroad. Since then, six multi-volume
editions of the writer's works have been published, in four of which a significant
place is occupied by her correspondence, namely in 5-volume edition (Kyiv, 1951–
1956); in 10-volume edition (Kyiv, 1963–1965); in 12-volume edition (Kyiv, 1975–
1979); in 14- volume edition (Lutsk, 2021)). Fundamental work Lesya Ukrainka:
Chronology of Life and Creativity (New York, 1970) by O. Kosach-Kryvyniuk,
elucidates memoirs, documents, correspondence of the Drahomanov-Kosach family,
including Lesya Ukrainka’s letters. Lesya Ukrainka’s correspondence also occupies a
significant part in a separate 3-volume edition of Larysa Kosach-Kvitka's letters
(Kyiv, 2016‒2018). At the same time, textologists and compilers worked hard on the
correct dating of each of the epistolary texts found and prepared for publication,
much of which required additional research on the issue of dating. The article focuses
on the general principles used by the researchers when dating (sometimes re-dating)
Lesya Ukrainka’s letters and the difficulties caused mostly by the existence of double
chronology (Julian and Gregorian calendars) in the society of that time and some rare
mechanical errors in the addressees’ notations, including Larysa Kosach-Kvitka. The
author concentrates on the individual correspondence of the writer. The case study of
individual letters helps to reveal the principles of a textologist's work on establishing
the exact or approximate date of when the text was written and show the importance
of such work. The publication is about clarifying and correcting the dating of some of
Lesya Ukrainka's letters, published with relevant comments in the Complete
Academic Collection of the Writer's Works in 14 volumes. The article attracts the
attention of researchers because, in general, the issue of dating (re-dating) epistolary
texts is an occasional subject of the studies.