Iwan Franko – Anno Domini 1897

The article presents one year 1897 in the life of an outstanding Ukrainian writer and politician, Ivan Franko (1856–1916). Although the mentioned year 1897 was extremely difficult for him it was also fruitful for Franko as a writer and thinker. The article focuses on personal biographical facts concerning the writer’s life of, but he also interprets texts which were written by Franko in 1897. This approach is to show how turbulent personal experiences are reflected in literary works of Franko which sheds light on the aporia of his thinking. In 1897 Franko was confronted with his personal drama: he had to deal with his own illness which was incurable and could have only a tragic and humiliating end. Moreover he had also to face up to his wife’s illness. His family life was ruined. The same year brought him defeat in his political career and serious conflicts with Poles and Ruthenians. While the last one was provoked by his text A Little About Yourself, the conflict with Poles resulted from the publication of the text entitled Poet of Betrayal (Ein Dichter des Verraters) in German. Both publications had extremely strong impact on Franko’s existence in the both societies: until these days his text Poet of Betrayal is treated by Poles as an painful example of disloyalty which presents a distorted image of Polish culture or even more than that ‒ it is treated as an attempt to destroy the most important symbols of Polish culture. The midlife crisis experienced by Franko, as the forty­year­old man he was at that time, was only an extra weight in this dramatic year. These experiences are reflected in the plot of the novel My Crime. The following article interprets the year 1897 as the time that explains a lot when the life and works of the writer are the subject of reflections.