Reflections on Shevchenko's Kateryna

Purpose Statement

The purpose of this research paper is to discover why Taras Shevchenko uses of women in his poetry. Along with the poem “Kateryna”, women are used quite heavily by the author. The women in his poetry appear to symbolize the czarist imposition of serfdom in the Ukraine. The irony was written when his own freedom was purchased by a friend. Women are usually seen as becoming impregnated by Moscals and then abandon by their impregnators. Shevchenko desire is to reveal how the czars imprison the Ukrainian people just as women are put into a prison by the seduction of the soldiers from Moscow.

Problem Statement

Taras Shevchenko, through his poem, "Kateryna," was addressing the issue of Petersburg imposing serfdom upon the Ukraine. He used the symbol of women who gave themselves to the Moscals soldiers. The problem Shevchenko perceived was twofold. He was concerned about how Ukraine purity was being filed by the introduction of Russian genes by these women's pregnancies. The second was Russian interference into everyday Ukrainian life as symbolized by the pregnant women being abandoned by the Moscal soldier.

Introduction

Not taking into account all challenges and difficulties, Taras Shevchenko, ninetieth century Ukrainian romantic national poet, wrote in Ukrainian and about Ukraine. He demonstrated that the Ukrainian language deserves literary attention and in turn rekindling a latent Ukrainian national spirit. George Luckyj writes “Shevchenko provided in his poems the raison d’être of the modern Ukrainian nation. The mythic poet became a national prophet”. Thus his first importance to Ukraine is clear: his works for the first time proved the intellectual maturity of the Ukrainian language and culture. Although...

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...uel before your grief. (Shevchenko)

Works Cited

"Early Ukrainian Identity: The Case of Taras Shevchenko." Perspectives Student Journal of Germanic and Slavic Studies. Winter 2004. Web. 4 May 2012.

Luckyj, George S.N. "The Archetype of the Bastard in Shevchenko's Poetry." Shevchenko and the critics, 1861-1980. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980. pp. 386-394.

Rudnichenko, Nataliya. Being a women in Ukraine. Welcome to Ukraine n.d. Web. 5 May 2012.

Shevchenko, Taras. "If You but Knew." 1961. Shevchenko Poetry. Taras Shevchenko Museum. n.d. Web. 6 May 2012.

Shevchenko, Taras. "Katerina." 1960. Electronic Library of Ukraine Literature. University of Toronto. n.d. Web. 5 May 2012.

Zheleznova, Irina, John Weir and Olga Shartse. "Selected Works by Taras Shevchenko." Spring, 1984. The Modern Language Journal , Vol. 68, No. 1 (Spring, 1984), pp. 89-90.