Littérature scientifique sur le sujet « Ukrainian Autobiographical fiction »

This article is devoted to the study of resemantization of the key terms in the text of the new autobiographical novel «Emerson’s Garden» (“El huerto de Emerson”) by Luis Landero. In Ukrainian Spanish studies the name of Luis Landero is associated with the Generation of 1968, postmodern realism, post postmodern novel and existentialism, the features which mark the early works of the writer. Writing activity of Luis Landero for the last decades was not mentioned by Ukrainian investigators nevertheless it demonstrates a new high level of literary mastership. In his autobiographical novel «Emerson’s Garden» mature writer constantly uses the experience of Spanish literature with his special narrative technique where a cognitive component dominates. Estimating the achievements of the great writer and scientist Umberto Eco, it is observed how Luis Landero forecasts the role of the reader and then gives a new meaning to his own work and rewrites it so as just the author’s idea could be crystalized. As a result, a transparent text with a clear message of the writer is obtained. Among the main cases of resemantization the names of all parts of the novel and particular elements of ideological and thematical organization of the novel were highlighted. The process of resemantization affects the names of real objects and the objects of fiction literature reality. Newly resemantizated units particularly influence the perception of the reader and convey the direction of the authors thinking, creating dynamic and live images. The article says that original author’s metaphor and hyperbole are the locomotive of the resemantization process.

Actual scientific researches and issues analysis. A significant impetus for understanding and involvement of the scientific potential embedded in the life description practices was given in works of F. Schleiermacher, V. Dilthey, K. Jaspers, J.-P. Sartre, R. Rorty. Ukrainian scientists O. Va-levskyi, V. Horskyi, I. Holubovych, A. Tsyapa, V. Menzhulin have especially carefully worked out the biographical discourse within the framework of philosophical science and have derived some thorough, in our opinion, methodological principles The research objective. This research examines biography and autobiography as a socio-cultural and cultural-anthropological phenomenon by identifying the differences and similarities between them. We will also explore fiction and/or falsified biography as a self-reflective practice and explore its methodological potential in relation to reality. We will also consider autobiographical practices using vivid examples of the pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrialeras The statement of basic materials. Differences between biography and autobiography at the socio-cultural and cultural-anthropological level can be of fundamental importance in the case when the biography serves as a practice of distinguishing between the “I” of the narrator and the Others. The difference between the two genres becomes fundamental at the level of consideration of the character against the background of his social environment, historical and cultural circumstances. An important question for modern researchers is the border that separates the autobiographical narrative, which strives to be as close as possible to reality, from the imaginary or even deliberately constructed. Perhaps the most important work that reflects the transition from ancient memoirs, epistles and self-reflective lyrics, as well as the genre of medieval hagiography to autobiography itself, is the “Confessions” of Augustine Aurelius, in which many researchers see the first complete work built using psychological introspection. Autobiography as a separate genre in the modern sense took shape at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries, standing out from other works that contained elements of self-reflection, subjectivity, and authorial self-identification. In the post-industrial era, biographical/autobiographical collisions take on the most sophisticated form and vividly express the relationship between the individual and society. The conflict on the boundary of Self/Other deepens, the importance of the connection between the author's life and his work increases in public consciousness, which turns into a kind of reaction of the most sensitive authors to the trends of the era.

The anthology “State of War” is a fiction and documentary prose about the bloody war unleashed by Russia on Ukrainian lands, a prose in which the authors, through the prism of their own worldview, experience and emotions, offer the general readership the recorded tragedies of “timeless truth”, the facts of grave illegal crimes committed by the Russian occupiers. The article aims to examine the reception of martial law events in the anthology as non-fiction literature in contemporary Ukrainian prose. The object of the study is the texts of the anthology “State of War”, united by the subject of depicting military events in Ukraine in order to document the war in its various manifestations and tell the world about it in the “Ukrainian voice”. The study was conducted using elements of descriptive, structural and semantic, receptive and interpretive, and contextual methods of analysis. The anthology “State of War” is a genre transformation that combines “sophisticated fiction and the accuracy of documentary” (V. Sayenko), and is dominated by essays, narratives, and memoirs that have only recently been classified as fiction and documentary literature. The textual and social conclusions of “State of War” with an appeal to autobiographical memory made it possible to consider texts in the genre of “non-fictional prose” (T. Bovsunivska): they contain autobiography, the authors appeal to personal experience, indicate involvement in the events described, the narrative is in the first person and is based on a reliable fact, as in memoir genres. The core format of the anthology’s textual content is determined by the history of everyday life. The authors of the book (fifty of them), like the characters in the stories, are writers and public figures, journalists and scholars, volunteers and soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Combatant writers, i.e., active military personnel – Oleksandr Mykhed, Artem Chapai, Artem Chekh – create stories not based on other people’s impressions but on what they have seen and experienced, proving that the problems of a soldier are not only related to fighting and defending positions, but also to the aesthetics of survival, to the belief in victory over the aggressor for the further development of society. The texts of the anthology “State of War” contain genre “inclusions” (“Siren-Hyena” by L. Taran, “Under the Bridge” by S. Povaliaiev, “After the Occupation” by V. Puzik) that organically fit into the author’s narrative, confirm significant events, and increase the recipient’s responsibility in the reading process. The semantic core of the narrative of “State of War” is determined by the titles: they influence architectonic expressiveness, inform the reader about the objective reflection of events, facts and phenomena, transform into message titles, decode the content (“Being a Teacher Under Occupation” by L. Denysenko, “My First Bomb Shelter” by I. Pomerantsev, “After the Occupation” by V. Puzik, “Roots Up, or Fear of Migration” by T. Gundorova, “Presentation with Stress” by Y. Vynnychuk).

Background. The article analyzes historical facts as the structural elements of “Legionnaire’s Notes” by Joseph Honza-Dubnitsky. Synthesis of documentary and ar-tistic is one of the genre dominant of notes in the Slovak literature of the twentieth cen-tury. Slovak authors’ notes are similar to the Ukrainian and Russian works of this gen-re. It encourages drawing parallels, find common features and differences. Purpose. To investigate the features of individual-author’s interpretation of the genre of notes in Joseph Honza-Dubnitsky’s work, in particular to focus on the role of a historical facts as a structural elements of “Legionnaire’s Notes”. Results. In the Slovak literature of the twentieth century genre of notes belong to the non-fiction with a characteristic autobiographical dominant. When narrator’s story is closely intertwined with important historical events, he needs to tell about them, to con-vey to contemporaries and descendants information, to emphasize the role of ordinary person in history. “Legionnaire’s Notes” by J. Honza-Dubnitsky is a thorough docu-mentary book, autobiographical evidence of the participant of the World War І and at the same time a historical study with critical remarks and interpretation of the most im-portant events of the twentieth century. “Legionnaire’s Notes” is a history of Slovaks struggle for its own state. All events are submitted through the prism of the worldview of Slovak Patriot, who aware himself as a participant of global processes and world changes, perceives them and analyzes. J. Honza-Dubnitsky’s work is rich in actual ma-terial, therefore, has literary and historical significance. There are important events, dates, names of famous people mentioned in the text. That information makes the notes a valuable document. At the same time, facts in the work have a subjective, estimated, emotional-personal dominant, which raises them to the level of generalizations and liter-ary interpretation. J. Honza-Dubnitsky does not often talk about the personal, almost does not put himself at the center of the story. The narrator thinks by socially important categories, recognizes, that he is a part of Slovak nation. Together with like-minded people he fights for Slovaks right to be heard in the world political arena. The narrator takes an observer position, captures events, witness and participant of which he is. Key words: genre, notes, autobiographical, historical fact, Slovak literature. Chui, K. I., 2019. Genre features of “Military Doctor’s Notes” by Albert Shkarvan. Studia Slovakistica, 19, pp.261–268. (In Ukrainian) Chui, K., 2021. Alternative view of history in “Notes from the Front 1941–1943” by Matej Oravets. Studia Slovakistica, 20, pp.90–102. (In Slovak) Honza-Dubnicky, J., 2014. Legionnaire’s notes. Banska Bystrica: Vydavateľstvo PRO. (In Slovak) Savenko, I., 2008. The main problems of documentary writing in the context of literary discourse at the turn of the century. Bulletin of Lviv University. Series: Philology. Lviv: LNU im. I. Franka, 44, ch. 2, pp.128–137. (In Ukrainian) Savkyna, Y., 2013. Notes as a “depersonalized diary”: Documentary and artistic potential of the genre. Literature issues, 1, pp.337–354. (In Russian) Shakhova, K. I., 2017. Notes as a genre of Ukrainian prose of the XX–early XXI centuries. Lutsk: Vezha-Druk. (In Ukrainian) Vyktorovych, V. A., 1981. Genre of notes by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Lev Tolstoy and Russian Literature. Hor’kyj: Yzdatel’stvo HHU, pp.18–25. (In Russian)

The paper covers the subject and genre varieties of memoirs by Sviatoslav Hordynsky. Such genres are highlighted as the memoirs itself, travel writing, diary notes, portrayals of famous artists, letters, obituaries, oral stories, interviews with the author. The main art subject-matter in the memoirs has been accentuated. The travel writing was practiced in his early works, the memories of the Western Ukrainian art processes of the interwar period pertain to the creative period in emigration. The narrative features of the artist’s memories have been traced. Hordynsky’s memoir texts are perceived as an independent proof supported by art history facts. These are not pieces of writing for “own cheek”, albeit works for the future with an intention to record important events and outstanding names for the Ukrainian culture. It has been observed that these memories are not characterized by a fragmentary composition and large forms, but on the contrary, the author structures logical texts, elaborates on compositional links, usually analyzes in small non-fiction forms. The writer practices an autobiographical attitude of testimony rather than confession, so the subjectivism of narration is not expressive. There is a great intermedial potential of texts. Sviatoslav Hordynsky’s memoirs can serve as a documentary material for art history and reveal the secrets of the artist and writer’s work. These texts clarify the intentions of the artist’s appeal to literature and represent a holistic vision of the artist’s personality.

The article is devoted to the problem of nonfiction in modern Ukrainian literature. The author, based on books by domestic writers about the Revolution of Dignity and the war in the East, in particular the works of B. Humeniuk, M. Mathios, N. Rozlutsky, etc., considers the literature of fact as a separate kind of modern literature, analyzes its features in the context of similar publications. for the further consistent "fitting" of the concept into the latest literary paradigm. Such works appeared in the array of military prose for the first time, but are still one of the most popular authors and societies of publications. In terms of genre, they are eclectic - they combine diary and Facebook entries, autobiographical details, journalism, short prose and poetry; the plot is based on real events with a slight touch of art. Such texts are also characterized by heightened emotionality, as most of the authors of non-fiction texts are eyewitnesses and active participants in the Revolution of Dignity in the war in eastern Ukraine. Nonfiction texts have led to various discussions about terminological use, as well as the correspondence between the concepts of «factual literature», «documentary», «factual literature», «nonfiction» and so on. Some domestic researchers use all these terms as synonyms, considering them phenomena of the same order, meaning unimagined literature about reality. Also in the material it is convincingly proved that today's numerical advantage of documentary over fiction is not ganja, but a characteristic feature of modern literature. The work is based on scientific principles of modern history and theory of literature, it combines descriptive, historical-biographical, comparative-historical (to compare different types of characters and track the dynamics of individual images), available elements of hermeneutic method, narrative and intertextual analysis.

The focus of the author of the article is the solution of the problem of reality in the literature of postmodernism. We are talking about the subjective nature of the perception of space by the characters of two stories. The author of the first of them, “Podmiot”, is the Polish writer and psychologist Olga Tokarczuk. The author of the second, “The Incredible Story of the «Pocket Oracle»”, is Ukrainian writer and literary critic Oleksandr Mikhed. The key event in each of the stories is the destruction of the boundary between literature and reality, between the author and his hero. In the story by Olga Tokarchuk, the character of the autobiographical novel, like a shadow from H. K. Andersen’s fairy tale, tries to capture the living space of his creator, to replace him. In Alexander Mikhed’s story, the real person – the reader – identified himself so much with the hero of the young writer’s novel that he even went to commit the murder of the author in order to save a fictional character, believing that in this way he can protect his own life from the arbitrariness of the one who invented this character. Various motivations for what happens in the stories are offered. The destruction of the boundary between the fictional and real worlds in both stories may be a result of reflection of how the authors see the process of artistic creation; it may be connected with artistic study of the mental state of the characters; the inclusion of fantastic motifs may be an allusion to the famous works of romantic writers. Mainly the author of the article connects this process in both stories with the actual problem of modern philosophy – transgression. It, in turn, is directly related to many questions that we are trying to find an answer to. In particular, are the boundaries between fiction and reality so strong, and is there really such a different space (dimension) in which literary characters are no less real than ourselves.

Attention is paid in the article to the landmark event of modern Ukrainian culture – the book celebrating its anniversary in 2024 – Ivan Bahrianyi’s novel the Tiger Trappers and the rethinking, interpretation of this work in the modern Ukrainian artistic space, in particular in cinematographic and theatrical texts. This year, 80 years have passed since the world saw the adventure work with autobiographical elements, which resonated not only at home, but also abroad. And this is not surprising, because Tiger Trappers has been translated into many languages of the world and had a circulation of over a million copies. Ivan Bahrianyi has submitted to a wide audience a very Ukrainian in spirit and worldview action, which even today in the 21st century is able to interest young people with its truthfulness and insight, its thirst and desire for freedom. The film version of the Tiger Trappers novel, which has appeared in 1994 at the Ukrtelefilm studio is analysed in the investigation. A well-known figure of Ukrainian culture Rostyslav Synko is a director and screenwriter of the film. The film text is based on the original source, but there are also differences those testify not only to another time period, the other era in which the film was shot, but also to certain new accents, a new vision, a reinterpretation of Ivan Bahrianyi’s novel about the young aviator Hryhorii Mnohohrishnyi. According to the plan of the author of the film story has another name. He is called Andrii Chumak in the film. There are also the other details those differ in the novel and in the fictional strip of the same name. And this is quite natural, because it is about the author’s interpretation, reinterpretation of a well-known work. The film of the same name also draws the viewer’s attention to the two Ukraines of the main characters: to the distant, dreamed-of real Ukraine with Golden-topped Kyiv and to the Second Ukraine, which immigrants, exiles from their native land, have built for them in the Far East in the bloody 20th century. In our time, this motif acquires new shades, because again, already in the 21st century, there are Ukrainian immigrants, again there are people who are forced to seek refuge all over the world, escaping from the terrible Russian invasion. Will new immigrants be able to find their Second Ukraine? Will they be able to return to their homeland? Life will show... The interpretation of the novel in modern Ukrainian musical theater is considered. Last year the musical Tiger Trappers directed by Serhii Pavliuk has been released basing on the novel of the same name by Ivan Bahrianyi. This fact, without exaggeration, has become a landmark artistic event, which has success with the audience and favourable reviews of critics. It is emphasized in the article that when we see a finished cultural product of the Ukrainian artistic space, whether it is a film or a theatrical production, a musical, etc., based on a certain work of fiction, we realize that this is already an interpretation, a reinterpretation. So, we are already talking about the creation of a new cultural text – a film text, a theatrical text, a musical text, etc. The significance of modern theater and film art is understood. It is claimed that the mission of art today is exactly rehabilitation through art. An artistic product should give hope, show a happy version of the course of events. Faith in the victory of good over evil, glorification of love that does not pass away – all this should be present in modern theatrical, musical and film texts today. After all, there is a demand for such cultural products in the modern time slice of the 2020s.

The paper examines the beginning of Taras Shevchenko’s history as a reader – the period up to 1837, which is the date of the first known work of the young genius, the ballad “Insane” (“Prychynna”). Three stages (“the ages”) are distinguished in this period: childhood (until 1828), pre-bachelorhood (1828–1831), and bachelorhood (1831–1837). The analysis involves direct self-evidence (memoirs of relatives and acquaintances, Shevchenko’s autobiographical novels and letters), scholarly and popular science studies of Shevchenko studies, samples of historical and biographical Shevchenko studies, etc. The main method used is the “reverse optics” method, aimed at cognizing the object of attention “from the outside” and “from the inside”. The article traces, in addition to social, purely private (home) prerequisites for Taras’s long-lasting interest in books, noting that the latter had not only a paper equivalent at that time: living history was learned from stories, folk songs also penetrated his mind and taught him. The features of the boy’s psychological communication with books in the elementary school of Kyrylivka, as well as during his stay in Vilno and in the first years after his arrival in St. Petersburg, are also discussed. Also outlined is the range of Shevchenko’s reading at this time, it is indicated which lectures the future poet met sporadically, by chance, and which he had long-term, one might say, lifelong, external and internal relations with. These are primarily religious books, then works of fiction by Ukrainian and foreign authors, works on history, etc. The article also discusses the people who supported Shevchenko’s unusual interest in reading and how these efforts correlated with the multicultural and spiritual contexts in which Taras was living at the time. Some attempts to ideologize the topic (such as the artificial attempts of Soviet artists to “infantilize” the image of Shevchenko in his childhood and youth, noted by H. Hrabovych) are also pointed out. It is concluded that even in this state, in the grip of merciless circumstances (early orphanhood, social slavery), Taras not only sought but also worked to broaden his horizons, as a result of which reading and knowledge contributed to his relatively broad erudition even for that time, and was a form of creative socio-cultural activity, a way of self-defense and self-realization. Obviously, this is how the unique reading consciousness of the genius was formed, not to mention that a bright, outstanding type of Ukrainian creative intellectual was cultivated.

The article is devoted to researching the work of N. Romanovych-Tkachenko, a representative of the generation of female writers of Soviet Ukraine in the 1920s, from the perspective of gender discourse. Women's literature of Soviet Ukraine in the 1920s-1930s is an understudied and not updated phenomenon of the Ukrainian literary process of that time. Most of the texts of women writers were unnoticed by literary critics, and the problems that were raised in their texts turned out to be "uninteresting" for the then, generally male, literary critics. Instead, we note the emergence of a new generation of women writers in Ukrainian literature, formed not only by the national tradition, but also by the first wave of European feminism. They radicalize the women's issue and put forward other, unlike their predecessors, aesthetic demands on artistic texts. At the same time, it was women writers who continued the traditions of modern Ukrainian literature, in particular bright individual writing. Most of them told the reader about their biographies for the first time in the form of memories, diaries, memoirs. The peculiarity of these biographies is that they reveal a striking discrepancy between the expectations of women from the gender policy of the Bolsheviks and the revolutionary, post-revolutionary reality. We can see two biographies of the writer by comparing the artistic texts and autobiographical memories of N. Romanovych-Tkachenko. One of them is imaginary, constructed by the author on the basis of her own life project, and the second is real, as the writer lived. These two biographies in different genre forms are presented in the writer's work. Imaginary biography is described in the experience of the characters of fictional texts, while real biography is represented by the memoir genre, in particular, the diaries and memoirs of the author. The difference between these two life scenarios shaped the feminist outlook of N. Romnovich-Tkachenko and many other modern women writers.