Katrya Mateiko in the Galician Interwar Press: the spiritual dimension of Journalism

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse the previously unknown and little-studied journalistic and scholarly output of Katrya Mateiko, a well-known ethnographer who preserved, studied, and promoted Ukrainian folk traditions during the Soviet period, as reflected in the Galician press of the interwar era. Through press publications, the article outlines her worldview priorities, pedagogical principles, ethnographic interests, as well as her religious and civic activities. The research task involves the identification, systematisation, and analysis of articles and contributions in Galician periodicals such as «Dilo», «Ukrainske Yunatstvo», «Meta», «Zhinocha Dolia», «Zhyttia i Znannia», «Lvivski Visti», and «Ridna Zemlia», authored by K. Mateiko herself, as well as chronicle materials documenting her public engagement. The research methodology is based on a comprehensive approach combining descriptive, analytical, and hermeneutic methods in order to trace the thematic range of the discovered journalistic and informational materials, their social context, and religious foundations. The novelty of the article lies in the fact that, despite the well-studied scholarly legacy of K. Mateiko after 1939, her early journalistic writings and informational contributions with a distinct artistic element have remained largely unknown. For the first time, more than twenty publications from the interwar period and the period of German occupation are introduced into academic circulation, and a number of cryptonyms are deciphered, enabling attribution of related press materials. Conclusions. The publications of Katrya Mateiko in the Catholic weekly Meta and other periodicals, as well as a series of chronicle materials in the daily newspaper «Dilo» enrich the biographical profile of the scholar with new facts and reveal new facets of her journalistic and literary talent. They shed light on her views on issues of social morality, emancipation, the institution of the family, the influence of books and cinema on youth education, and the interpretation of ethnographic studies as a means of preserving and developing the spiritual, aesthetic, and cultural code of the Ukrainian nation.