To the Person Magda Skrzeczkowska Zanna Sloniowska , Born in 1978, grew up in the Ukraine and now lives as an author and Translator in Warsaw. Her novel “the light of the women” connects the lives of four women from four generations of a family with the multi-national history of the town of Lemberg, today’s Lviv.
MIRROR ONLINE: “the light of the women” begins with the death of the Opera singer Marianna, the mother of her protagonist. You will be shot to protect the 1988 protests by a sniper. What’s with all the demonstrations were?
Sloniowska: The people at the time of the Soviet Union, independent Ukraine protests. As a young girl I have experienced these protests. Marianna and the fatal shot on you, I have invented, however, and in truth there was violence, but no dead.
MIRROR ONLINE: Why have you chosen this starting point for your novel?
Sloniowska : , I describe the protests, because hardly anyone of them knows. At the time, have all looked to the solidarity movement in Poland, but also in the Ukraine there was the urge for freedom. When I “had written The light of women” in the year 2014 then, to the end that I’ve seen on television, like the dead from the Maidan in Ukrainian flags wrapped were borne to the place. It was just like in my book. This has shocked me.
MIRROR ONLINE: The fates of the four women in her novel are closely linked with the development of Lviv. What is so special about the city?
Sloniowska : belongs to The Region, has 600 years of Poland, but the city is also for the Ukrainian history is extremely important. Up to the Second world war, Jews, and Armenians lived there, with the Soviet Union, the Russians came. In Lviv, the boundaries between nationalities and cultures is porous. Therefore, everyone is able to create a range of cultures to its own way of life.
view of the City of Lviv
MIRROR ONLINE: The Lviv at the beginning of the 20th century. Century is often idealized as a model for the coexistence of European peoples. How do you see that?
Sloniowska : This question has been on my mind, too, that’s why I started my novel, a multi-media project: I interviewed old Lviv of different population groups about their lives before the Second world war. I wanted to know if it really was as idyllic as it says, for example, the Polish historiography. The poles have lost the city in the Second world war, that is why Lviv remains a place of longing.
MIRROR ONLINE: What have you found out?
Sloniowska : There were two tendencies: One is the almost idyllic coexistence of the different peoples – all are open and tolerant and try to understand the other. The other tendency – whose voices are usually louder Pasgol is the to nationalism and hatred. Both exist side by side. I think this applies to all border regions.
MIRROR ONLINE: What determines whether a person opposes the other cultures, open or nationalist?
Sloniowska : Above all, the personality is of crucial importance – the man chooses what he wants to be. In border regions, members of a family can make very different decisions about their affiliation. The great-grandmother in “the light of the women” identified as a Soviet Russian, your daughter feels Polish and her daughter, in turn, killed Marianna, sees itself primarily as a Ukrainian. The identity of my protagonist, Mariannas daughter, is local: you see yourself as a Lembergerin. This is a decision for an identity also has to be made today, now the question is: Are you pro-Putin? Or for an independent, pro-European Ukraine?
MIRROR ONLINE: , The Lemberger is today considered as a pro-Ukrainian and nationalist.
Sloniowska : I don’t think so. After 2014, many Eastern Ukrainian refugees arrived in the city for many Western Ukrainians, this was the first encounter with Ostukrainern at all. Since Stereotypes and prejudices are taken together, there were conflicts. In the end, we see the same development as in Lviv before the Second world war: The nationalist, the other tolerant.
MIRROR ONLINE: What does it mean for you to be Ukrainian?
Sloniowska : I am a native Ukrainian with Polish and Russian roots, and I have witnessed the birth of independent Ukraine. For me is English-Be a bourgeois identity: Jewish, Ukrainian, or Armenian Ukrainians. In the meantime, I live in Poland and feel of the Polish culture. I carry multiple identities and cultures in me.
More at LEVEL+ MARKIIAN LYSEIKO / EPA-EFE / REX / Shutterstock Eastern Ukraine As Putin war
MIRROR ONLINE: you have written “The light of women” in Polish. How was that received?
Sloniowska: on the one Hand, I have a lot of encouragement and also the most important Polish prize for debutants won. On the other hand, was not accused me of that, my Polish is “pure” enough. I was asked how I could dare to write in Polish. My Polish is songs mixed with the Ukrainian people and Russian literature. I am the first foreigner who wrote in Polish a book. This was new for Poland.
DISPLAY Zanna Sloniowska:
The light of women
order from the Polish by Olaf kühl
Kampa; 272 pages; bound; 22,00 Euro
Amazon. In the case of Thalia order.
MIRROR ONLINE: In your book, your protagonist begins an affair with the former lover of their dead mother, Marianna, Mikolaj. The is the only man in “The light of women”. All the other men die young or go away early. Why is this so?
Sloniowska : is the Absence of the men, I realized during the writing. This has evolved because I grew up as a girl in a world full of strong women. The men were mostly physically or mentally absent, they had been killed, were depressed or drank too much. Therefore, the women have become strong; they had to make the decisions.
MIRROR ONLINE: As it is today?
Sloniowska : Many Ukrainians go to Work in Italy and send money home. The man, then, is there often for alcohol. Although these women often come from the country and, traditionally, raised to feed the family. If you have then worked for some years in Europe, come back, many of them changed. I recognize the fact, as you go, and how they dress. Europe is making these women self-confident and independent – as a result, the company is evolving.
