IRONIC ΗRYHIR TIUTIUNNYK (SOME OBSERVATIONS)

One of the most dramatic writers of the 2nd half of the 20th century Hryhir Tiutiunnyk was remembered by all his contemporaries who worked in the cultural sphere as a person endowed with a keen sense of humor, rare wit, and unique artistry (in various genres, both dramatic and comedic). This paper is a reflection on how in the works by Hryhir Tiutiunnyk, killed by the totalitarian system in 1980, the well-known dominants of “love and pain” are deepened by irony, in all the immensity of its shades and meanings. The writer did not use any words from the political lexicon but instead unmasked the totalitarian system by depicting (mostly through apt expressions and details) the behavior and destinies of people oppressed or destroyed by it. His irony is mild, lenient, or even somewhat sympathetic. In the stories reviewed in the paper, namely “Screw”, “Niura”, “The Feast in Memory of Markiian”, “The Son Has Arrived”, the mentioned nuances of the means of irony are used in rather complex, sometimes weird combinations (“The Literate”, “Laughter”), revealing the ardent indifference of the author who tried (sometimes successfully) to pretend to be an outsider – an unworried or even superior narrator. In such works as “The Feast in Memory of Markiian” and “Medal”, the death itself or its obvious approach causes the appearance of tragicomic elements. However, in the latter, the tragic irony is not related to the character, but to the props of the stage action, in which the people resembling mannequins represent the village and district authorities and pretend to award a starving man as “the best animal breeder”. Some of Hryhir Tiutiunnyk’s characters, as in the short story “Oddity” and the story “My Saturday”, rise to a sarcastic mockery of oppressors: the specificity of the Soviet-communist officials lies in the fact that they don’t even realize the absurdity of their activities, which lack any humanistic principles. The literary world of the writer, despite its seeming simplicity, is extremely complex in terms of inner subtleties of thoughts, emotions, and conflicts.

INTERMEDIAL RECODING OF GEO SHKURUPII'S WORKS IN THE VIDEO PERFORMANCES AT THE SEMINAR OF CREATIVE YOUTHS 2020

The paper focuses on poetry-based video performances conducted by the participants of the “Creative Youths Seminar” (CYS), which was founded in 1995. Adaptability is one of the most essential features of all seminar clusters. It leads to constant transformations in a general program and within poetry performance laboratory (existing as a part of CYS since 2015) in particular, due to socio-cultural and political context. In 2020, because of the quarantine restrictions, CYS for the first time changed its regular face-to-face form to a remoteone and took place online. Live performance cluster transformed into a three-day marathon of video performances. During that time 24 participants made over 70 video performances that lasted for more than 100 minutes in total (there was a record number in every category of a CYS performance cluster). Nearly half of the performances were poetry-based. Almost a third part was based on the poems by Ukrainian Futurist writers Oleksa Vlyzko, Mykhail Semenko, Oleksa Slisarenko, Andrii Chuzhyi, Geo Shkurupii, and Yulian Shpol. The article analyzes five poetry-based video performances that refer to the poems by Geo Shkurupii as pretexts: “A Talk with a Future Self ” by Yaroslav Boruta, “I Want to Be a Furniture” by Vladyslava Demianchuk (Dadi), “Oh Little Boy” by Natalia Matsybok-Starodub, “Czech Scotch Tape” by Iryna Pavlenko (Ira Pamiatai), and “The Future of Cherry Orchards” by Viktoriia Feshchuk. The pretexts, poetry performance texts (if any), and their intermedial connections with video performances have been examined. The researcher concludes that poetry-based performances let the artists not only experience the text traditionally but also ‘live through the text’, or, in other words, create a personal physical experience of the pretext and offer the audience another perspective on the pretext with the help of non-literary media.

BARCAROLE PRINCIPLE IN A GENRE-COMPOSITIONAL ORGANIZATION OF “BERESTECHKO” BY LINA KOSTENKO

The paper deals with a historical novel in verse by the celebrated modern Ukrainian writer Lina Kostenko, for the first time analyzing it totally in a synesthetic way — through the component of musicality (namely barcarole principle of poetic creativity). The folklore origins of barcarole in the world culture have been traced, as well as the peculiarities of the absorption of the genre by professional music and literature, especially Ukrainian. Formation of the genre in the creative work of the author of “Berestechko”, who is the poet of a special musical feeling, deserves special attention. Barcarole is one of the forms of modernity in the creative thinking of Lina Kostenko; it is a natural writer’s way of perceiving reality and transforming it into an aesthetic system of artistic work (both in poems and the novel in verse). Being inclined to poetically adopt chamber and solo musical genres, the poetess creates a special voice polyphony in “Berestechko”, where each sense construct of a modern unity, i. e. novel lyric epos and barcarole, sounds both separately and complementarily, and the part of a protagonist merges into “I” of a speaker. The compositional function of barcarole in “Berestechko” is the modeling of a central character of the text. It is hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, spiritually undermined by the recent defeat. The barcarole elements are used for constructing the author’s version of this failure and its consequences, which spread around Ukraine as circles on water; absorbing a soothing rhythm of a song, which can cure the soul with love; shaping the architectonics of the text in the form of 'splashes'-'circles' with poly-functional titles and subtexts. In the genre structure of the novel, barcarole is essential both in the development of the theme and its stylistic implementation. In the unity of the work, one may notice “prelude”, the main part, and “postlude”, each part with its artistic sense. The images typical for a barcarole — water, boat, song, woman, love, etc. — are designed in accordance with the agrarian microcosm of the main character and its symbolic senses. Time flow, self-immersion, and love do not only spiritually heal hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, but give his life a direction and endow his figure with grandeur. The neoromantic potential of barcarole and the novel in verse correspond well and join in the final coda about the unshakable courage and heroism of the Ukrainian warriors.

СULTURAL EPOCHS AS TEXT IN LESIA UKRAINKA’S DRAMAS

Based on Lesia Ukrainka’s dramas “Iphigenia in Tavrida”, “Cassandra”, “The Orgy”, “Ruphin and Priscilla”, and “The Stone Master”, the paper highlights peculiarities of cultural and historical codes of the Antiquity and the Middle Ages in the writer's works as well as literary manifestation of the world-view features of European and Ukrainian Modernism in the antique and medieval images and motifs. Lesia Ukrainka reconsidered the heritage of archaic and late Antiquity, Hellenistic period, Galilee at the time of Jesus, Early Christianity, and Medieval Spain. Each of these epochs has its own dichotomy of social and biological phenomena, parameters of the world model, and dominant fundamental points. Lesia Ukrainka’s dramas transform the material of various cultural epochs, providing polysemantic images that transfer the cosmos of a certain period into the neo-romantic and neo-classical system of images and symbols. In the dramas, the writer raised the issues recurrent in her works, such as love and sacrifice; beauty and ugliness; prophet, artist and ‘revolt of the masses’; reality and dream; good and evil; truth and benefit; nostalgia for chivalry; nostalgia for the Absolute; psychological and moral freedom and violence; spirit, soul, and body; spiritual nobility and the rule of brutes; nature and culture, etc. Numerous issues and characters, multifunctional ontological, cultural, and historical phenomena, cultural codes, symbols, and mythologems acquire an existential meaning in the author’s dramas fitting not only into various cultural contexts but also into the modern reconsideration of mythopoetics.

FEATURES OF INDUSTRIAL PROSE IN UKRAINIAN SOVIET LITERATURE: THE SHORT STORY “BLAST FURNACES” BY DMYTRO BUZKO

The paper highlights the features of ‘industrial’ prose in the Ukrainian Soviet literature of the 1930s clarifying the main formal and semantic characteristics of “industrial” genres, their reception in criticism, and such characteristics of this genre as style, plot, figurative and thematic principles. Based on D. Buzko’s text “Blast Furnaces”, the paper shows the transitional period between the free avant-garde artistic movement in Ukraine of the 1920s and the implementation of socialist realism as the only official style in Soviet art in the 1930s. As a representative of the futurist movement, deeply engaged in the elaboration of early cinema theories, Dmytro Byzko wrote a novel “Holiandiia”, which deconstructed official narratives and topics of the late 1920s. The comparison of the “Blast furnaces” with this novel helps not only to see the mentioned transition but also to notice the divergence of the “Blast furnaces” and more canonical pieces of this genre. Dmytro Buzko’s “Blast furnaces” extremely accurately reflects the expectations from literature at that time: the heroes explain the main stages of work at the metallurgical plant, and by their example, in words and deeds, agitate readers to become conscious builders of socialism. Although a large number of similar techniques, ideas, and even views of the author can be found in “Holiandiia” and “Blast furnaces”, the first novel is a sharp critique of the contemporary reality, while “Blast furnaces” is a text complementary to reality. The analysis of “Blast furnaces” shows the process of the search for an ideal and canonical protagonist as well as an antagonist for the Soviet literature. The last one in this text is represented by the typical for the whole Ukrainian literature covetous farmer who, in a new political reality, plays a role of a small evil ready to harm ordinary workers and socialistic future.

THE SHORT STORY GENRE IN THE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE WORKS OF WESTERN LITERARY SCHOLARS OF THE 20TH —21ST CENTURIES

The paper is focused on the perception of the short story genre in the western literary theory of the 20th —21st centuries. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the term 'short story' was a neologism, and its appearance indicated the rethinking of established literary forms. This process led to the development of new literary theories. The works of Brander Matthews (“The Philosophy of the Short Story”, 1901) and Frank O’Connor (“The Lonely Voice”, 1962), prominent writers and literary scholars of the 20th century, established academic short story studies in the English-speaking countries. Charles E. May, Susan Lohafer, Mary Rohrberger, Austin Wright, Ian Reid, Clare Hanson, Florence Goyet, Hanna Meretoja, whose major publications are also within the scope of the paper, provided further investigation of numerous issues of the short story genre and other types of short fiction. The works of the mentioned scholars are widely known and serve as a basis for academic courses and as an introduction to the short story theory. Nevertheless, they are rarely considered as one of the possible theoretical perspectives in the relevant Ukrainian research works on a short story, and it gives a reason for a closer look at them. Due to rising attention to the short literary forms, involving different theoretical frames might be beneficial to the development of the discourse. The paper describes the key issues of modern discussions concerning the distinctive features of the short story, its scope, definitions, establishment as an independent genre, and meaning in axiological and ontological contexts. The issue is explored by comparing different theoretical experiences with the use of comparative and discursive analysis.

“YOU SHOULD HAVE VISITED BORYSLAV THIRTY YEARS AGO…”: ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF IVAN FRANKO’S STORY “POLUIKA”

The paper analyzes the poetics of Ivan Franko’s story “Poluika” — the work that was included in the second thematic collection on the oil industry of Boryslav named “‘Poluika’ and other stories about Boryslav” (Lviv, 1899). The researcher focuses on the modern, in particular impressionistic, principles of displaying the working and industrial environment. The narration is performed through the life story of an old oilman who, being at the end of his life, recalls a custom of ‘poluika’, which existed among Boryslav oilmen thirty years ago. The new elements of “Poluika” poetics help in the deeper revealing of the inner world of a character, his values, and psychology. The story shows a number of new changes at the level of formal features of poetics. It presents still unknown aspects of Boryslav life and reflects the eloquent features of the modernistic type of I. Franko’s creative work. The story is based on retrospection of the events that happened thirty years ago, and this approach also makes its plot and composition peculiar. The origin, primary meaning, and expressive content of the word “poluika”, used as a title, have been clarified. The industrial landscape wasn’t new in contemporary literature but the writer tended to use it in an innovative way. The workers presented by Franko gain such new features as social, moral, and professional maturity. The researcher also pays attention to the peculiarities of applying the first-person form of narration tested by Ivan Franko in his works from 1870―1880. In general, “Poluika” has the genre features of a story but the structure of the work also reveals evident elements of a short story. Thus, the genre of “Poluika” is defined as a short story of social psychological content.

IN SEARCH OF LIFE EXPERIENCE AND WISDOM (ORIGINALITY OF THE FAIRY TALE BY IVAN FRANKO “ABOUT A NOBLEMAN LOOKING FOR А TROUBLE”)

The paper deals with the story “About a Nobleman Looking for а Trouble” (1887) by Ivan Franko and highlights its genre peculiarities. The major attention is drawn to the dominant features indicating the fairy-tale nature of the story. The literary sources of the plot, the system of characters, biblical allusions, main issues as well as the reception of the work by contemporary criticism have been explored. The story by Ivan Franko was based on Ukrainian folk tales about the search for trouble performed by a nobleman or a priest. In the field of struggle between the forces of good and evil, the images of the young magician — Messiah — Jesus Christ and the Тrouble become the central symbols of the tale. The Misfortune archetype, which is directly linked to Franko’s perception of the people, suffering under circumstances of total dependence on the landlords, must be analyzed with attention to the people’s outlook and the author’s individual thinking. The young magician appears as Messiah, and it helps to bring a nobleman closer to something eternal and make him reevaluate his own life. These images perform important functions in the plot and composition of the work, revealing active changes in the character of a nobleman and forming the philosophical and psychological discourse of the author. There is a variety of associations between the light in the Bible and in Franko’s tale. The “light that enlightens everyone” causes enlightenment of а nobleman. The inner state of the hero at the moment of enlightenment is revealed in prayer. The prayer monologue demonstrates openness, sincerity, the immediacy of self-expression and despair, and at the same time hopelessness. The plot of the tale “About a Nobleman Looking for а Trouble” is related to Franko’s unfinished poem “About a Richman Who Went to Buy а Trouble” (written in 1887). The research also involves some other prose works by the writer.

THE LOST ‘BEAD’ OF “THE WITHERED LEAVES”

The paper deals with the poem by Ivan Franko “My soul! The soul of my soul!”, which wasn’t published during the poet’s lifetime. As one of the poems from Franko’s poetic cycle “The First Bunch” it might have been included in the forthcoming collection “The Withered Leaves”. That’s why the general context of this collection is relevant. The researcher reviews the genre and creative history of the poem and gives attention to its psychobiographical context. The comparison of the published text with the autograph revealed a discrepancy that modifies interpretation. The basis of this poetic reflection is the poet’s intimate feelings for Celina Żurowska (married name Zygmuntowska), so the paper focuses on this Polish woman, in particular her attitude to the poet and her influence on his work. The research focus also includes other works of the writer, which somehow relate to Celina. Her pride, stubbornness, and sometimes even contempt caused pain in the poet’s soul, which gave rise to poetic masterpieces. The memories of Franko’s contemporaries, as well as the ones of Celina herself, help to interpret the poem. The researcher analyzed the work in terms of its structure, poetic composition, emotional tone, and iconosphere. The images of the pearl (shell) and the soul, which are the central symbols of this work, show semantic similarity. The pearl is a symbol of love that grows and becomes stronger due to patience, and at the same time, it is a metaphor for the soul. The poetic language and versification have been examined as well.

A HISTORIAN OF LITERATURE AHAPII SHAMRAI: TEXT, WORK, AND ENVIRONMENT

The paper aims to reconstruct the research activity of the Ukrainian literary scholar Ahapii Pylypovych Shamrai (1896—1952) in the period from 1922 to 1929. For this purpose, the works of the scholar, his personal files, materials from the newspapers and journals of the time, as well as correspondence have been examined. It was necessary to describe A. Shamrai’s postgraduate studies at the Research Department of History of Ukraine (literary and ethnographic section) (1922—1924). Much attention is given to the textbook “Ukrainian Literature. A Brief Survey” (1927, 1928) that was among the first structured presentations of the history of Ukrainian literature. The paper analyzes the perception of the textbook by contemporary readers and outlines the specifics of Shamrai’s sociological method of this period. Considering the research work of A. Shamrai in the context of literary criticism of the 1920s, the author of the paper reconstructs the scholar’s dialogue with M. Zerov and the polemic with “New Generation” magazine. One of the central topics for A. Shamrai in the 1920s is examined in detail: it is his study of H. Kvitka-Osnovianenko’s work. In particular, the discussion between A. Shamrai and Ye. Aizenshtok on the publication of H. Kvitka’s works in 1928 has been highlighted. A. Shamrai’s scholarly concepts of the 1920s characterize him as a textual critic (‘text of the work’, ‘canonical text’) and historian of literature (‘literary fact’, ‘work’, ‘environment’, ‘style’, ‘literary school’, ‘template’, ‘minor writers’, ‘influence’). The category ‘reader’ was also very important for Shamrai’s works of this period. A range of examples shows how Shamrai used the methodology of comparative studies.