Women Artists in the British and Ukrainian Literature at the Turn of the 19 – 20 Century: D. H. Lawrence’s Women in Love and O. Kobylianska’s Valse Mélancolique

The article analyzes the peculiarities of women-artists’ portrayal in the texts Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence and Valse Mélancolique by O. Kobylianska in the light of feminism and intermediality. Its relevance is conditioned by a new wave of interest in feminist interpretation, the comparative study of the relationship between visual art-literature and the opportunity to expand the line of the research of English-Ukrainian literary cross-cultural relationships. The purpose of this article is to determine the similarities and differences in the images of women artists. In order to achieve this objective, we used feminist approaches, elements of intermedial and contextual analyzes, as well as biographical and typological methods. The research showed that the correspondences in the images of women-artists are obvious at different levels: the importance of art in the life of the protagonists, criticism of patriarchal society with all its conventions towards women, focus on strong personalities of womenartists, elements of visual art incorporated in the literary works. Despite the different socio-cultural situation in Britain and Ukraine at the turn of the 19 –20 century, the prose works of D. H. Lawrence and O. Kobylianska proved the authors’ common interpretation of women-artists images, which correlate with the modernist principles of a free choice and self-expression.


Introduction
The images of women artists in the texts by D. H. Lawrence and O. Kobylianska indicate the three interrelated key notions of the research: feminism, art, and literature. The authors attempted to implement in their works of literature new philosophical and aesthetic ideas that spread at the turn of the 19 th -20 th century. The characters became the spokesmen of the authors' ideas on feminism and provided new principles of depiction and narration borrowed from visual art.
Many scholars have devoted their works to the study of feminism (V. Woolf, S. de Beauvoir, E. Showalter, L. S. Robinson, S. Pavlychko, V. Aheieva, T. Hundorova, K. Otkovych, and others), as well as to the investigation of intermediality (U. Weisstein, L. Heneraliuk, S. Matsenka, O. Rysak, N. Tishunina, etc.), but still, the problem of the image of a woman artist in the above mentioned literary texts has not been raised. The relevance of the research is determined by the increasing interest of current literary criticism in feminist reinterpretation and interart comparison.
Thus, the purpose of this article is to consider the typological similarities and differences of the authors' representation of the women-artists in Women in Love (1920) and Valse Mélancolique (1894) in which social and aesthetic issues are implemented.

Methods
The research applies the contextual analysis, biographical and typological methods as well as the theories of feminist criticism and intermediality. The contextual analysis enabled the comparison of British and Ukrainian social and cultural backgrounds suitable for the broad spreading of feminist ideas at the turn of the century. The biographical method assisted in finding out the authors' attitude to the problem of women's emancipation. It also helped us to trace the factors that influenced the formation of the worldview of D. H. Lawrence and O. Kobylyanska, which deepened our understanding of the female protagonists depicted in the analyzed works. Employing the typological method, we studied similarities and differences in the artistic expression of the images of women artists in the texts of the English and Ukrainian authors.
The important components of the methodological basis of this study are the works of feminist theorists, in particular V. Woolf' A Room of One's Own (1929), S. de Beauvoir's The Second Sex (1949), L. S. Robinson's Treason Our Text: Feminist Challenges to the Literary Canon (1983), etc. According to L. S. Robinson, feminist criticism includes two possible approaches: the first one concentrates on women writers and the second one -on the reinterpretation of woman's characters (Robinson, 1983: 85). Regarding this study, it has been carried out within the second approach.
Intermedial analysis allowed tracing the peculiarities of the artistic implementation of painting techniques into literary practice.

Results and Discussion
The turn of the 19 th -20 th century was the age of radical changes in all areas of human life. Modernist philosophy, new movements and methods penetrating British and Ukrainian societies, provided favorable conditions for the development of feminism. The notion of 'feminism' is broad and ambiguous. It has many senses and approaches and could be viewed as "a movement for the equality of sexes; the incorporation of women in all spheres of cognition and society; recognition the difference between male and female, and overcoming this difference; female studies in a broad social context; focusing on women as a separate category" (Bohachevska-Khomiak, 2003: 170). It refers to different aspects of women's life: their struggle for independence, the right to get an education, to work, to develop, to create, and hence, to choose their own way of life. These ideas, supported and developed by modern writers, were reflected in feminist discourse in British and Ukrainian literature. They added to the emergence of a new image of a woman artist -intelligent, creative, and self-sufficient. Analyzing the role of a woman from the origins of humanity, S. de Beauvoir concludes that she was enslaved to the generative function and productive work; she "has been consigned to domestic labor and prohibited from taking part in shaping the world" (Beauvoir, 2010: 168). In the meantime, "this world has always belonged to males" (Beauvoir, 2010: 96), "they created the values, customs, and religions" (Beauvoir, 2010: 181). That was the reason for a hostile attitude to the women-artists who had to conquer a patriarchal doctrine, according to which "a woman cannot create" and "a worldchanging function is not available for her" (Beauvoir, 1994: 12).
A similar situation prevailed throughout Europe, including England and Ukraine. "Victorian England imperiously isolated woman in her home" (Beauvoir, 2010: 175) and hindered her attempts to gain equal rights with men. To change the situation in the late 19 th century Mrs. Fawcett founded a suffragist movement which was hesitant, and only around 1903 "feminist claims took a singular turn" (Beauvoir, 2010: 175). In Ukraine, the women's movement became to develop actively in the late 19 th and early 20 th century. In 1884, Natalia Kobrynska organized Ukrainian women in Stanislaviv (now Ivano-Frankivsk) primarily for educational purposes, and Olena Dobrohrayeva founded Higher Courses for Women in Kyiv. But unlike English women who were struggling for emancipation and equal rights, "Ukrainian women sought personal liberation and inclusion in the developing economic structure" (Antonovych: 706). They did not struggle for equality, but rather for the public good. Moreover, in Ukraine, we do not see strong opposition between masculine and feminine worlds. For example, Feminist ideas were supported by N. Kobrynska's husband -T. Kobrynskyi, also O. Terletskyi, V. Polianskyi, and later I. Franko, M. Pavlyk. The suggested gender model consisted of spiritual unity, and urged to revise the traditional understanding of patriarchal essence of a man and a woman as a housewife or a demonic being (Kovaliv, 2013: 66).
Feminist writers at the turn of the twentieth century revealed the conditions the women endured in the society with the dominion of traditional morals. As for D. H. Lawrence, his adherence to feminist writers is controversial. S. de Beauvoir, for example, stresses the author's belief in male supremacy. She pays attention to his considerations that "it is infinitely more difficult for the woman than for the man to submit to cosmic order, because he submits in an autonomous fashion, whereas she needs the mediation of the male" (Beauvoir, 2010: 279). Moreover, S. de Beauvoir claims that D. H. Lawrence despised modern women (Beauvoir, 2010: 276). On the other hand, P. Balbert admits that D. H. Lawrence was the first to create a "modern" woman in English fiction. Undeniable is the fact that many of his comprehensible characters are female (Walker). Norman Mailer, for his part, stresses "that no other man writes so well [as Lawrence] about women". More of that, he is not sure if there is "a woman who can" do this better than Lawrence (Mailer, 1971: 110). We agree with H. Simpson that D. H. Lawrence's attitude to feminism could be changing. At the same time, the author's interpretation of the character of Gudrun in the novel Women in Love demonstrates his deep comprehension of the woman's essence. According to H. Simpson, "D. H. Lawrence was familiar with the goals of the suffrage movement since many of the women he knew at this time were involved to a greater or lesser extent in it". Nevertheless, as H. Simpson argues, he did not support "militant feminism of the suffrage movement" as it contradicted his idea of "individual liberation and development" (Michaels, 1984: 125).
Instead, in O. Kobylianska's attitude to feminism, we see no ambiguity. She is known to be a feminist movement supporter and in some respects its leader. In 1894 O. Kobylianska was one of the initiators to found a feminist organization "The society of Rus women in Bukovyna". Moreover, her biography is a vivid illustration of her feminist views. First of all, she rejected the idea of marriage for the sake of starting a family and having children. In relations with men, the dominant for her was spiritual kinship (perhaps because of this, she never married). Then, she took an active part in social life -an area in which men have traditionally been involved. At last, she chose the path of a writer trying to realize her creative potential in art. It was just through literature that O. Kobylianska defended women's rights in social and spiritual life.
Though Women in Love and Valse Mélancolique are written by the authors of different sex and nationalities, the works differ in volume and the year of publishing, the images of women-artists described there have many typological similarities. Revealing the characters through their creativity, the authors showed them strong, emancipated personalities who challenged the position of a woman in a patriarchal society. In the context of their interest in arts, the intermedial discourse of the texts of both authors is brought about.

The painters Gudrun in D. H. Lawrence's Women in Love and Hanna in O. Kobylianska's Valse
Mélancolique are radically new types of women addicted to art, which determines their attitude to life and behavior. To emphasize that creative activity is important for Gudrun in the first place, while D. H. Lawrence introduces her occupation first and then gives her portrayal characteristics. He combines a conventional description of her appearance with outside views. We read "Gudrun was drawing upon a board" (Lawrence, 2003: 3) and then get to know that she was twenty-five and "had the remote, virgin look of a modern girl" (Lawrence, 2003: 4), "Gudrun was very beautiful, passive, soft-skinned, soft-limbed" (Lawrence, 2003: 4). "The provincial people, intimidated by Gudrun's perfect sang-froid and exclusive bareness of manner, said of her: 'She is a smart woman.' (Lawrence, 2003: 4) and she was absolutely admired by her sister Ursula who thought "Gudrun so charming so infinitely charming, in her softness and her fine, exquisite richness of texture and delicacy of line. There was a certain playfulness about her too, such a piquancy or ironic suggestion, such an untouched reserve". (Lawrence, 2003: 6). Though external beauty was not the main characteristic of her, it was extraordinarity that mattered. This fact is confirmed by Loerke's words, "You, for your part -you know, you are a remarkable woman, eine seltsame Frau. Why deny it -why make any question of it? You are an extraordinary woman, why should you follow the ordinary course, the ordinary life?" (Lawrence, 2003: 455). Similarly, as in Women in Love, the author of Valse Mélancolique describes Hanna's occupation of a painter first, "She was almost a professional artist and was working on a picture which she wanted to sell, and then go to Italy to see the art and pave the way to it" (Kobylianska: 1). Later we are informed that she "was twenty-something years old" (Kobylianska: 1) and "was beautiful with blond hair, regular features, and very lively shining eyes. She was built very nice…" (Kobylianska: 3). Marta, the narrator and her room-mate admired Hanna, her friends-painters liked her, and even professors loved her as fathers and called "Dаs schönste Glückskind" (Kobylianska: 1).
Innovative for both texts was the idea of describing the accord of modern, educated, and relatively free women living together. In Women in Love, this unity is formed by the Brangwen sisters, Ursula and Gudrun, who are emancipated young women -a schoolteacher and an artist. In Valse Mélancolique we have a harmonious trio consisted of Marta -the narrator and a future teacher, Hanna -a painter, and Sophia -a musician who joins them later. All of them were educated, and that was a great achievement for those times. Education meant financial independence which enabled them to realize themselves as personalities and artists. In both works, it is stressed that the women-artists were the first to ruin the myth about femininity. For example, Gudrun and Hanna's creative work has become a mode of resisting stereotyped assumptions about the role of a woman in a patriarchal society at the turn of the century. Among the first to analyze the condition of a woman in a patriarchal society was the English writer V. Woolf. She admitted that an English woman was dependent on her husband, father or brother and was enclosed in a confined space. And in order to become an artist "a woman must have money and a room of her own" (Woolf, 1929: 4). In fact, she wrote about a female writer, but it referred to any artist as well. Freedom was a prerequisite for creation, and an English woman of the Victorian society did not have it. Thus, V. Woolf concluded, "…it is fairly evident that even in the nineteenth century a woman was not encouraged to be an artist. On the contrary, she was snubbed, slapped, lectured, and exhorted" (Woolf, 1929: 46). "Patriarchal consciousness asserts that a woman cannot create, transcendence and world -changing function is not available for her" (Beauvoir, 1994: 12). From this point of view, the image of a woman-artist in D. H. Lawrence's Women in Love is considered rebellious.
The space of a Ukrainian woman in the late 19 th century was also confined to her room, garden, and a routine direction to a friend or a relative (Otkovych, 2010: 38). O. Kobylianska stepped beyond the traditionally patriarchal concept of social order. Her female protagonist Hanna belonged to various fellowships, as an artist, she had a chance to travel abroad and learn more about other countries. Thus, O. Kobylianska together with the writers Marko Vovchok, Lesya Ukrainka, and others tried to project "a new space of being for a woman" (Otkovych, 2010: 51). In Valse Mélancolique O. Kobylianska altered not only the interior but also traditionally women's style of life and profession. That was the reason for some Ukrainian literary critics (V. Shchurat, L. Turbatskyi) to consider them the creation of merely European culture unsuitable for Ukrainian literature and life (Pavlychko, 2002: 68-69). Later, Solomiia Pavlychko, another Ukrainian literary critic asserted, "Due to the character of the heroes, style, ideas Valse Mélancolique became the manifesto of Ukrainian "modernism" at the turn of the century, the new style and new artistic thinking, incompatible with traditionally-folk one" (Pavlychko, 2002: 91).
It should also be noted that although D. H. Lawrence and O. Kobylianska highlighted feminist issues represented in their characters, they both were influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche who was considered to be a misogynist. The impact of F. Nietzsche on D. H. Lawrence has been traced by C. Milton, A. Fernihough, J. B. Foster, S. Smith, and others. Regarding O. Kobylianska, her fascination with F. Nietzsche's philosophy is admitted by T. Hundorova, S. Pavlychko, Yu. Kovaliv, etc. The abovenamed scholars pay attention to the way the authors interpreted F. Nietzsche's ideas about nihilism, will to power, 'overman', and made them central in their literary works. In this regard, K. Otkovych argues that O. Kobylianska transformed F. Nietzsche's concept of an "overman" into an "overwoman" as a human being of new views (Otkovych, 2010: 46).
Having projected F. Nietzsche's nihilism as the devaluation of the highest values (Nietzsche, 1968: 9) on their characters, the authors make them deny patriarchal traditions and morality. Not surprising that the female protagonists of the analyzed works do not strive to get married (that was the main purpose for the girls at that time) or having children. On the contrary, they want to escape from the drudgery of reality into the world of art. Gudrun and Hanna neglect social conventions and live according to the laws of art. They implement F. Nietzsche's ideas that "Our religion, morality, and philosophy are decadence forms of man. The countermovement: art." (Nietzsche, 1968: 419). Thus, Gudrun "felt powerful enough to leap over the confines of life into the forbidden places" (Lawrence, 2003: 395-396). For her, Art was the Reality and Life was Unreality, she admitted, "life doesn't really matter -it is one's art which is central" (Lawrence, 2003: 446). That was the reason that she preferred to go to Dresden. "And there will be amusing things to do. It will be amusing to go to these eurythmic displays, and the German opera, the German theatre. It will be amusing to take part in German Bohemian life <…> One will escape from so much, that is the chief thing, escape so much hideous boring repetition of vulgar actions, vulgar phrases, vulgar postures" (Lawrence, 2003: 462). Gudrun hated monotony and meaninglessness, and everything Gerald could offer her seemed boring. She realized that she could easily become a wife of a prosperous and successful coal-mine owner, but she knew that she would only be "the woman behind him" (Lawrence, 2003: 414). A conventional marriage did not satisfy her. In her turn, O. Kobylianska's heroine Hanna during her conversation with Marta argues, "I am an artist and live according to the laws of art, and they require a little more than the laws of such a close-knit person like you! You may limit yourself to your own space, because you have to; it is narrow, but my field is wide, boundless, and that is why I live such a life" (Kobylianska: 2). She does not only reject a traditional marriage, but also suggests an alternative to it. She is not afraid of staying alone. Instead, she considers living together with two more girls on equal rights, thus challenging the established scheme of a woman's fate, "When we remain unmarried women, -she said (she hated the words 'old maiden'), -we will also live together. We'll take a third member to our company, because two is not enough to make a program or rules, and we will live <…> Then we won't be afraid of loneliness, helplessness, eccentricity, etc., which are attributed to an unmarried woman <…> Then the crowd will be convinced that an unmarried woman is not an object of mockery and sympathy, just a being that has developed undividedly. So: we will not be, for example, wives or mothers, only women themselves. You see? We will be people who did not become either women or mothers, but developed fully ..." (Kobylianska: 2).
In both literary works, one can clearly trace the analogies with F. Nietzsche's division of all people into "the higher species" and "the lower species" ("herd", "mass', "society"). According to the scholar, "The artist belongs to a still stronger race" (Nietzsche, 1968: 430), and the strong man does "nothing that disagrees with him" (Nietzsche, 1968: 480). On the contrary, the mass is viewed as "the sum of the weak" (Nietzsche, 1968: 459), which "does not create, does not advance" (Nietzsche, 1968: 459). Nevertheless, "the mass is dominant it bullies the exceptions" (Nietzsche, 1968: 19).
Gudrun and Hanna are artists; they are undoubtedly strong personalities, and very often take on male traits. For example, Gudrun is opposed to Gerald Crich who envies her self-sufficiency, "Can't you be self-sufficient?' he replied to himself, putting himself upon his pride. 'Self-sufficient!' he repeated. It seemed to him that Gudrun was sufficient unto herself, closed round and completed, like a thing in a case" (Lawrence, 2003: 442-443). Between Gudrun and Gerald was a combat and the strongest triumphed. Having realized that being understood and feeling free is more important to her, the woman-painter cannot contradict her inner convictions, so she chooses herself.
In Valse Mélancolique Hanna almost directly translates F. Nietzsche's words about the higher species (aristocratic society). She says to Marta, "we, the artists, are a chosen handful of society" (Kobylianska: 2). If artists in her understanding are educated and well bred, 'the others' are seen by her as "crowd" (Kobylianska: 2). Besides, Marta admits that her friend possessed an unexplainable power over her and the surrounding, "She dominated me like a lord, and although I had a free will like her, I couldn't resist her, I never did that" (Kobylianska: 3). Unlike D. H. Lawrence, O. Kobylianska does not focus her attention on love relationships that are mentioned in the story. It is left in the background and we can only guess how the relations between Hanna and her son's father developed. Though, similar is the fact that the painter could not live with a person who didn't share her thoughts, "We couldn't find agreement in lifestyle, and when he didn't want to understand me, I left him" (Kobylianska: 28).
Another crucial similarity provided by the images of women artists in the texts is their attitude to visual art. Choosing the profession of an artist for the heroines the authors reflected their strong interest in painting. As we know, D. H. Lawrence combined the talents of a writer and a painter. His main twenty-five paintings were exhibited at Warren Gallery in London's Mayfair in 1929 and aroused enormous public interest. O. Kobylianska did not paint herself but she was fascinated by art and communicated with artists. Among her friends was Augusta Kokhanovska -a famous painter. Presumably, she became a protagonist of Hanna in Valse Mélancolique.
The authors' connection with painting could not, but influence their style of writing. They had a special painterly vision which helped them to shape their literary works. The writers did not reject the traditional forms of realistic narration but tried to renew it with methods borrowed from painting. Like impressionist painters, D. H. Lawrence rendered the reality through the eyes of his characters at a certain moment. For example, he described the wedding guests in the churchyard as Gudrun watched them, "She saw each one as a complete figure, like a character in a book, or a subject in a picture, or a marionette in a theatre, a finished creation" (Lawrence, 2003: 10). In the same way, he does not only give the external appearance of Gerald but portrays him through Gudrun's eyes, "His gleaming beauty, maleness, like a young, good-humoured, smiling wolf, did not blind her to the significant, sinister stillness in his bearing, the lurking danger of his unsubdued temper. 'His totem is the wolf,' she repeated to herself" (Lawrence, 2003: 11).
Being influenced by Impressionism, D. H. Lawrence succeeded in depicting unsurpassed landscapes. He emphasized the importance of light and colors, used unusual undertones and comparisons, "For the moment, the sunshine fell brightly into the churchyard, there was a vague scent of sap and of spring, perhaps of violets from off the graves. Some white daisies were out, bright as angels. In the air, the unfolding leaves of a copper-beech were blood-red" (Lawrence, 2003:10). He also struggled to create verbal pictures with obscure and blurred contours, "On the left was a large landscape, a valley with collieries, and opposite hills with cornfields and woods, all blackened with distance, as if seen through a veil of crape. White and black smoke rose up in steady columns, magic within the dark air" (Lawrence, 2003: 7).
In O. Kobylianska's Valse Mélancolique, colors constitute a very important element of the text. They do not only describe but also convey the author's attitude. Employing words denoting colors, the author expresses the characters' feelings, creates associations and emotional tension, hints on the further development of events, etc. Thus, portraying a musician Sophia Doroshenko, O. Kobylianska deliberately uses dark and black shades, emphasizing her tragic fate and forecasting the fatal end. When Hanna asked the maid what Sophia wore, she answered, "It seemed to me she was dressed in black, not very nice... her head was wrapped over a hat with a silk shawl like yours that you take to the theater, only black, but, on the whole ... not like you, my lady!" (Kobylianska: 6). Dressed in black appeared Sophia in the exquisite dwelling of Hanna and Marta for the first time. Dark tones accompany Sophia in Marta's memoirs about her, "I can't forget her sitting there... Over her shoulders, there was a long black rotunda, lined with fur around her neck and down to her feet, and she casually was putting it back on her chest with her hand, like a white agraph. A dark knot of hair fell down her neck <…>" (Kobylianska: 23).
The images of artistic personalities helped authors to enrich the texts with pieces of narration containing discussions on art and artistic movements, descriptions of pictures or painting technique, etc. Such passages are usually filled with specific artistic terminology as well as with the names of artists or pictures. Frequently repeated artistic terms in Women in Love enhanced the correlation between literature and art and created a certain background for opposing the real world and the world of art: picture, painting, drawing, portrait, work of art, reproduction, photogravure, statuette, sculpture, carving, frieze, color, art-student, art-school, master-sculptor, model, craftsman, artisan, studio, creative, Flaxman, Blake, Fuseli, Mestrovic, Futurists, West African wooden figures, the Aztec art, etc. A great amount of artistic terminology proved not only the author's interest in art but also his competence in artistic issues. In a short story Valse Mélancolique, lexically-semantic field related to painting contains the terms which were used in Ukrainian bohemian environment of those days: "painter", "artist", "image", "art", "sketch", "work", "profile", "line", "brush", "drawing", "motif", "colors" and others. Taking into account a small volume of the text, certain terms deepen their meaning. It refers, for example, to such words as "woman-artist" and "art" which reflect Hanna's inner essence: first she was an artist and then a woman.

Conclusion
Hence, D. H. Lawrence and O. Kobylianska created a radically new type of portrayal for British and Ukrainian works of literature at the turn of the century. First, they were emancipated women, second, they were artists, which enhanced their modernity. Gudrun and Hanna challenged patriarchal society with its conventional values. They defended their right to create the works of art, i.e. create themselves, and so to live according to the laws of art. Through their heroines, the authors showed their solidarity with feminist movement encouraging a new generation of women to be strong to face the male world.