Marko Vovchok

Marko Vovchok (Ukrainian: Марко́ Вовчо́к, Ukrainian pronunciation: [mɐrˈkɔ ʋou̯ˈt͡ʃɔk]; nee Mariia Vilinskа, surname by the first marriage: Markovych, surname by the second marriage: Lobach-Zhuchenko, Russian: Мария Александровна Вилинская; 22 December 1833 – 10 August 1907) was a Ukrainian female writer of Russian descent. Her pen name, Marko Vovchok, was invented by Panteleimon Kulish. Her works had an anti-serfdom orientation and described the historical past of Ukraine. In the 1860s, Vovchok gained considerable literary fame in Ukraine after the publication in 1857 of a Ukrainian-language collection, Folk Tales. In terms of literary fiction, Marko is considered to be one of the first influential modernist authors in Ukraine. Her works "shaped the development of the Ukrainian short story". Also, she enriched the Ukrainian literature with a number of new genres, in particular, the social story (Instytutka). The story Marusya, translated and adapted into French, became popular in Western Europe at the end of the 19th century. After a scandal over the plagiarism of her translations into Russian in the 1870s, she almost ended her literary career. Later it was uncovered that she didn't do the translations in question, but hired underpaid ghostwriters. Until now, there are different opinions about the authorship of Ukrainian works by Marko Vovchok. Discussions about her magnum opus Folk Tales have been going on since the middle of the 19th century: many literary critics (including the editor of the collection Panteleimon Kulish) believe that it was co-authored with her first husband, ethnographer Opanas Markovych.