The image of Motherhood in Olena Pchilka's Prose

The article deals with the analysis of the motive structure of motherhood in the context of nationalism in Olena Pchilka’s prose. Its purpose is to demonstrate the peculiarities of the motherhood narrative in the works of early Ukrainian feminism and to trace the influence of nationalism on its forming. It is established that the main aspects of the theme in the prose by Olena Pchilka are pregnancy, childbirth, care for newborns and relationships with adult children, mainly the issue of marrying daughters. At the same time, relationships with young children are idealized, and this applies not only to the mother but also to other women. But men are outside the children's world. The main motive of imaging mothers with young children is the care of provision, which unites both nursing ladies and servant mothers. No matter the abundance, it is a world of care, not education. Relations with adult daughters are presented in two ways. In the story "Comrades" the education of the daughter changes the patriarchal subordination of the younger to the elders, and in the story "Artichokes" the mother considers the daughter as the "capital", which should be profitable to invest. In most texts, mothers' relationships with adult daughters are devoid of emotional experience transferring. In general, the image of motherhood in Olena Pchilka’s work is in the circle of ideas formed by nationalism, and demonstrates one of the variants of the image of Berehynia