Kobylianska was born in Gura Humorului in Bukovyna in the family of a minor administration worker of Ukrainian noble descent from Central Ukraine. She was the fourth child of seven of Maria Werner and Yulian Yakovych Kobyliansky. One of her distant relatives was the German poet Zacharias Werner. Maria Werner was a Polonized German who was baptized a Greek Catholic and learned the local dialect of the Ukrainian language. One of Olha's brothers, Stepan Yulianovych, became a painter-portraitist, another, Yulian Yulianovych, became a philologist and was the author of several textbooks in Latin.
Early days
Kobylianska was mainly self-educated, receiving only four years of formal schooling in the German language. She wrote her first works in German, beginning in 1880. Besides a proficiency in German she spoke Ukrainian as well as Polish. Sometime in 1868, she moved with her family to Suceava where her father accepted a job. There she met with Olha Ustyianovych, the daughter of Ukrainian writer Mykola Ustyianovych. In 1889, she moved to her mother's parents estate in the village of Dymka. In 1973, a museum was opened there in her memory.
In 1891, she moved to Chernivtsi. There she met Natalia Kobrynska, Doctor Sofia Okunevska, and fell in love with Kobrynska's brother, Dr. Yevhen Ozarkevych. In 1894, she became one of the initiators of the Association of Ruthenian Women in Bukovina, the program of which she included in her brochure Something about the idea of the feminist movement. One of her most prominent works which captured her political and social views was the novel Tsarivna, published in the Bukovina newspaper in 1895, as well as in other publications later. In 1896, she wrote Arystokratka, followed by Impromptu phantasie, and Valse melancolique in 1898. The last of these constituted a pioneering treatment of same-sex love, and was based partly on Kobylians'ka's own experiences. In the 1890s, she had enjoyed a romantic relationship with the male literary critic, Osyp Makovei, who had championed Kobylians'ka's work and was comfortable with the theme of strong, independent, educated female characters who asserted their right for sexual fulfillment. However, the two later broke up and in 1901 Kobylians'ka met with the female writer Lesia Ukrainka. The meeting produced an intensely passionate union that was realised through correspondence as illness and circumstances prevented them from living together. The literary critic Ihor Kostetsky later suggested that their relationship was lesbian, while George S. N. Luckyj believes that: "There was probably little or no physical contact between the two women, though the language of their letters appears homo-erotic".Solomiia Pavlychko has noted the strong homoerotic motifs found in Kobylians'ka's published work, most notably Valse mélancolique. Her other well known novels were Zemlya and V nedilyu rano zillia kopala. Of the latter, Vitaly Chernetsky wrote:
The book's plot is based on a well-known Ukrainian folk song, "Oi ne khody, Hrytsiu...". In it, a young man, Hryts', courts two young women simultaneously. One of the two women, in despair, poisons her beloved with an herb potion. Since the plot of the work is known to the reader in advance, attention is turned instead to its presentation: the narrative techniques employed, the description of nature, rural customs and rituals, and the additional subplots and details introduced by the author. The novel's plot is developed through the introduction of a new set of characters, nomadic Gypsies who move between and the Hungarian plain and play a pivotal role in the text. This element of what contemporary cultural studies would term hybridity makes Kobylians'ka's novel stand out among the works of Ukrainian Modernists tackling folkloric themes.
Simultaneously, some of her poetic and prose works in the abstract-symbolic style were published in various local magazines such as Svit and Ukrainian Hut. Mykhailo Starytsky later wrote a play under the same name V nedilyu rano zillia kopala. That work was also translated into several languages. Later Kobylianska met and traveled with fellow Ukrainians such as Lesia Ukrainka, Ivan Franko, Vasyl Stefanyk, and Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky, who influenced her cultural and political outlook. Together with other writers such as Marko Cheremshyna, Osyp Makovey, Katria Hrynevycheva, she described World War I. Some of her stories of that period were Juda, The letter of a convicted soldier to his wife, and others.
Style of writing
Her writings were influenced by George Sand and Friedrich Nietzsche. Kobylianska was interested in the Ukrainian peasantry, and often wrote about the lives of these people. She depicted the struggle between good and evil and the mystical force of nature, predestination, magic, and the irrational in many of her stories of peasant life. Her works are known for their impressionistic, lyrical descriptions of nature and subtle psychological portrayals. Kobylianska's works have been published in many editions and selections. In 1944, a literary memorial museum dedicated to her was opened in Chernivtsi, in the building in which she lived from 1938-1942. Solomiia Pavlychko has noted the strong homoerotic motifs found in Kobylians'ka's published work, most notably Valse mélancolique. ;One of her quotes
Cinema adaptations of works
"Earth"
"The Wolfhound"
"The Melancholic Waltz"
In German
Kleinrussische Novellen. Minden i. Westf. J. C. C. Bruns, .
