The artistic perspective of V. Vynnychenko's creativity in the context of the stage solution of his literary works

The purpose of the article is to highlight different aspects of the interpretation of artistic experiments of theatrical performances based on the works of V. Vinnichenko, taking into account the general concept of their artistic and aesthetic specificity, genre and stylistic features, and the original artistic manner of the playwright. The research methodology consists in the application of the cultural-historical method to analyze the interpretation of V. Vinnichenko's dramatic works, peculiar key creative processes, director's interpretations of his plays as future stage forms; art history method for comprehending the artistic and creative activities of a playwright in the context of evolution and progressive ideas in the art of theater; a modeling method for analyzing the model-setting of a specific period of the playwright's work; a structural-functional method for the study of the main guidelines in the organization of the creative process over a stage work. The scientific novelty of the research lies in carrying out a figurative-stylistic, artistic compositional analysis of the evolutionary process of V. Vinnichenko's creativity as a modernist playwright of the early twentieth century. Conclusions. There is every reason to state that the appearance of the figure of V. Vynnychenko was an extraordinary event: his phenomenon also lies in the fact that he is one of the few in Ukrainian and world literature who became a classic during his lifetime. Based on a comparison of literary sources and performances, it can be noted that there was an experiment and a search for new stage forms. And the peculiarities of the interpretation of V. Vinnichenko's works in the Ukrainian theater lie in the fact that it was determined by different components of the stage performance, as well as the socio-historical and cultural contexts of the life of Ukraine, which determined the experiments, methods, and forms of interpretation of the literary basis. Keywords: V. Vinnichenko, playwright, theater, director, performance.

RUSSIAN DRAMA DURING THE CRIMEAN WAR OF 1853–1856

The Crimean War of 1853–1856 became a real challenge for Russian society and was reflected in the culture and art of that time, including drama. Already during the war, plays dedicated to this historical event were being created and staged in theatres. This article analyses four plays – “For the Faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland” by Pyotr Grigor’yev, “The Veteran and the Recruit” by Aleksey Pisemsky, “The Feat of the Mother” by Orest Miller, “The Russians in 1854” by Adelaida Tal’tseva. The general ideological message of those dramatic works included patriotism, glorification of the greatness of the Fatherland and the strength of the Russian people, the Orthodox faith, in connection with which the plays created the image of a Russian soldier for whom participation in the war is a matter of honour and faith. The study establishes the correspondence of dramatic works of the period of the Crimean War of 1853–1856 to the requirements of the time, their close connection with the historical context of the era, as well as an orientation towards ease of perception by the audience. The author of the article defines the general features of patriotic plays of the Crimean War period at the plot and ideological level.

MYSTERY AS A META-GENRE IN THE DRAMA OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The article examines the specificity of existence of the renewed mystery genre as a meta genre in the twentieth century. The main literary study views on the definition of ancient and medieval / Christian ritual mystery are analyzed. The beginning of the twentieth century was full of a general feeling of catastrophe and tragic hopelessness. In artistic terms, the consequence of this was the activation of Christian issues, motives, plots, religious genres (miracles, morality and mystery). The most universal from the point of view of the ideological message and content for the writers of the twentieth century. was the matrix of the medieval mystery, which retained the ritual basis in its primary structure. This made it possible for the multilevel organization of the action and the space for it. The genre of medieval mystery is being modified, it ceases to be a purely form of religious action and acquires the quality of a meta genre. There is a transition from the religious sphere to the secular one, and the aesthetic one is replacing the didactic load. Mystery begins to exist on the edge of genres as a synthetic formation, showing intentions to “help” other genres. A large number of dramatic works of the twentieth century. ("Forest Song" by Lesia Ukrainka, "Iconostasis of Ukraine" by Vіra Vovk) comes close to the mystery, using its archetypal components: the ideas of faith in the absolute beginning, governing the eternal rotation of life and death, world order and harmony, death and rebirth, transformations of the human soul, chosenness and initiation associated with trials, sacrifice, deepening into mysticism. Such works are a certain imitation with elements of mythological or religious subjects. So, the twentieth century, actualizes a certain involvement of the semantic content of dramas to the mysteries, bringing the mystery to the level of the meta genre.

Dramatyzacja tradycji. Dramaturgiczne konfrontacje z kanonem literackim

The article opens with a statement that dramaturgical creativity, long marginalized by literary studies, has returned to the area of its interest together with its researchers’ use of the achievements of performative and cultural turns. Taking these into account allows us to treat drama as a distinctive literary practice in which the reception of a text is exemplary. As the author claims, with the New Humanities, integrating scattered reading perspectives known to the history of literary studies into the horizons of New Positivity, dramatic studies enrich this standpoint and maintain a critical view making creative use of the antagonism of perspectives, confrontation of attitudes, conflict of qualities or different visions and ideas. The potential tensions revealed in the practice of active reading of a literary text in accordance with the dramatic matrix guarantee the positive effects of each act of engaged reading. The dramatization of tradition is a specific field of critical dialogue between the reader and the existing literary tradition. Three dramatic works by Jan Czapliński are indicated as examples of mediators for this dialogue. The work of this playwright presents and suggests a critical reading of the characters and works of Gabriela Zapolska, Henryk Sienkiewicz and Adam Mickiewicz, leading to the emancipation of their works that is situated beyond the framework of the discursively created, existing canon of contemporary Polish literature and culture. A critical view enriches and updates the canon. Dramatization, which allows the revaluation of existing values, appears as the basic category of contemporary art – revealing existing, usually ineffable conflicts and using them to build new, positive values.

Dramaturgia muzyczna

In her paper, Ewa Wąchocka examines the phenomenon of recent dramatic works becoming increasingly more ‘musical’ and the terminological shift it brought about, i.e. the inclusion of the term ‘musical dramaturgy’ in writing for the stage. The author argues that far from being limited to the sounds of speech and language in general, musicality also encompasses a variety of non-musical sounds, the unravelling of the play’s narrative and the psychological makeup of its characters; it also penetrates deeply into the structure of the text. In the analysis of plays by W. Murek, A. Grzegorzewska, and S. Bogacz, the author demonstrates how essential the inspirations sourced from musical culture are for recent dramatic works: the 20th-century experiments with music, the discovery of how potent sound expression can be, or the most technologically advanced methods of sound reproduction. By presenting the many and varied dramatic strategies, the author shows that contemporary playwrights not only use musicality to represent the sound landscape of the world but, first and foremost, to create the ontology of an internally conflicted world.

Literary Analysis of Sharof Boshbekov’s Comedy «The Iron Woman»

Sharof Boshbekov, a unique writer, played an important role in the development of Uzbek drama in the 1980s. It is obvious that realism prevails in his plays. In the writer's works, the flaws of society are implied by humorous descriptions. His dramatic works depict the events and phenomena of that time, and not the depths of history. His works also critically describe the life of villagers and peasants. In this study, we analyzed Sharof Boshbekov's comedy “The Iron Woman” using the modern method of text analysis, which is widely used today in Turkish literature, and tried to determine the literary value of the text and the views of the writer. The analysis of the text covers the political and cultural landscape of Uzbekistan in the 1980-1990, the structure of the text, the relationship between the concepts of character, time and space. In addition, the language features and writing style of the work have been clarified.

Literary Analysis of Sharof Boshbekov’s Comedy «The Iron Woman»

Sharof Boshbekov, a unique writer, played an important role in the development of Uzbek drama in the 1980s. It is obvious that realism prevails in his plays. In the writer's works, the flaws of society are implied by humorous descriptions. His dramatic works depict the events and phenomena of that time, and not the depths of history. His works also critically describe the life of villagers and peasants. In this study, we analyzed Sharof Boshbekov's comedy “The Iron Woman” using the modern method of text analysis, which is widely used today in Turkish literature, and tried to determine the literary value of the text and the views of the writer. The analysis of the text covers the political and cultural landscape of Uzbekistan in the 1980-1990, the structure of the text, the relationship between the concepts of character, time and space. In addition, the language features and writing style of the work have been clarified.

“Unexpectedly British”: accentuation of THE nationally English in Edward Elgar’s “Fa lstaff”

Statement of the problem. The relevance of the article lies in revealing the peculiarities of the composer’s way of appeal to the national cultural heritage. The aim of the study is to determine the principles of embodiment of “the nationally English” in the symphonic etude “Falstaff” by Edward Elgar. The main method of the research is drawing parallels, on the one hand, and between the embodiment of the English national character through the image of Falstaff in musical and dramatic works, on the other. Research results. A conclusion is made that the main factor creating strong ties between the “symphonic etude” and the national tradition is spectacular national characterisation. Moreover, for the sake of applying the “English” the composer consciously and significantly changes his musical language. The author turns to very detailed programme (unlike general type of programness in most of his works), and that allows him to scrupulously depict the plot of Shakespeare’s chronicle on which he focuses on. Elgar also portrays overtly humoristic situations, for the first time in his symphonic works, because it would be impossible to disregard this side of Falstaff’s character, as it is the contrast of comical in the beginning and solemn in the denouement that create the tragic effect. The structural side of the composition is also unprecedented as it is formally has one movement, but the composer himself divides it in four parts (ignoring the arrangement of events in “Henry IV” in two parts) while all the parts are connected in various ways. As a result of this, “Falstaff” becomes the longest single-movement symphonic composition of Elgar. The composer favours linear type of musical thinking, integrating it with sudden “flashes” of thematically significant elements in different strata of the texture, and this all combined provides completely lush, unpredictable sonority of the orchestra. On the top of this, the author extensively uses themes with obvious genre genesis, especially in order to depict Shallow’s Gardens, although it is possible to find more traditional for Elgar passages with generalised type of intonation. Such characteristic for Elgar principles, as multi-thematism and elusion of the tonal centralisation (while using quite traditional chords in every given moment) find their new meaning regarding illustrative role of the music. A conclusion is made that the “Britishness” of the symphonic etude lies not in the use of folk intonations or allusions to the past of professional music, but in meticulous attention to W. Shakespeare’s text: both on levels of portraying or interaction between the “characters” and form-creating according to the scenes. Despite the fact that E. Elgar’s musical language seems to be quite distant from Falstaff’s comical essence, the composer was able to find means adequate to the character’s image, such as “wandering” tonal structure; superficial, but rather important analogy between quite large scale of a single-movement work and Falstaff’s body image; narrative orchestration.

Elements of Dramatic Symbolism in the Poetics of Miodrag Žalica

In the literary and theatrical critique of his time (second half of the 20th century), Miodrag Žalica was recognized as a representative of symbolist poetics in Bosnian-Herzegovinian drama. The features of Žalica’s dramatic symbolism have, however, rarely been observed through analyzing the technique of his dramatic works in concreto. The Piece Mirišu li jorgovani u Njujorku, written in 1988, certainly represents the culmination of Žalica’s poetics, and is, in that sense, suitable for an analysis of the symbolic network as a specific trademark of his authorship with regards to the poetics of symbolism in European modern drama at the turn of the 19th to 20th century.