THE NOVEL BY V. T. NARIEZHNYI “BURSAK, MALOROSIYSK STORY” AS THE MONUMENT OF THE HISTORICAL FICTION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24919/2519-058x.16.210897Keywords:
novel, romanticism, novelist, seminarian, bursak, traditions, customs, culture.Abstract
The purpose of the research is to analyze V. T. Nariezhnyi’s novel “Bursak, Malorossiysk Story” as a monument of a historical fiction, which depicts the everyday life of the common Ukrainian people in the XIXth century and to re-actualize the figure of the author, who influenced the Ukrainian public opinion of the XIXth century significantly. The Research Methodology. The selection of a factual material was based on the general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, comparison and generalization; the methods of comprehensiveness, objectivity and retrospect have been used during the comparative analysis of the historical reality and the events described in the novel. The system structural, comparative and descriptive methods have been used in the process of presenting the main provisions of the article. The Scientific Novelty. The article focuses on the analysis of the figure of V. T. Nariezhnyi as one of the first writers of the Romanticism epoch. The main theme of the study is the novel “Bursak, Malorosiysk Story”, which describes the life of the Bursaks of the Zaporozhian Sich through the prism of love, friendship and betrayal, life, customs and traditions of the Ukrainians. As the writer knew well the lives of the bursaks and seminarians, he was able to describe it accurately. This makes his novel an important monument of a historical fiction, which needs a detailed analysis from the point of studying the life of the Ukrainians in the ХІХth century. The Conclusions. The novel “Bursak, Malorosiysk Story” was published in 1824 and became a significant step not only in the creative work of V. T. Nariezhnyi, but also in all contemporary literature. By clarifying in the title “Malorosiysk Story” the writer emphasized that his work is dedicated to the past of Ukraine. Such an excursion to the past, which was inherent in the historical fiction of the first third of the XIXth century, is an attempt to move away from the problems of “a gray everyday life of the present” by indulging oneself into happy “Malorosiysk plots”.
A careful study of V. T. Nariezhny's literary heritage will help to enrich the national history and ethnography, it will additionally illustrate the processes of a historical fiction development, it will help to reveal the “creative kitchen” of many Ukrainian writers not only the Ukrainian ones. V. T. Nariezhnyi's creative work deserves a thorough intersectoral, systematic study. Firstly, his works filled historiographical gaps significantly, “reviving” the pages of an everyday life of the Ukrainians. Secondly, Vasyl Nariezhnyi’s literature had an inconspicuous but significant influence on the works of O. Somov, M. Zahoskin, M. Gogol, H. Kvitka-Osnovianenko, M. Markevych and further according to the principle of a chain reaction. Thirdly, V. Nariezhnyi's heritage occupies a prominent place on the intellectual map of the Ukrainians, it is the information-rich source on the history of a public opinion of the Ukrainian society in the ХІХth century and a kind of repeater of the Ukrainians' ideas about an everyday life of the previous centuries.
References
Belinskiy, V. G. (1979). Sobranie sochineniy [Collected Works]. Vol. 4. Moskow, 654 p. [in Russian]
Belozerskaya, N. (1896). Vasiliy Trokhimovich Narezhnyy. Sankt-Petersburg: L.F. Panteleev, 297p. [in Russian]
Goncharov, I. A. (1955). Sobranie sochineniy [Collected Works]. Vol. 8. Moskow: Gospolitizdat, 559 p. [in Russian]
Ishimova, A. O. (1837). Istoriya Rossii v razskazakh dlya mladshego vozrasta [Histiry on Russia in sroties for children]. Sankt-Petersburg – Moskow, 229 p. [in Russian]
Kotlyarevskiy, N. A. (1903). Nikolay Vasilevich Gogol 1829 – 1842 [Nikolay Vasilevich Gogol 1829 – 1842]. Sankt-Petersburg: Tip. M.M. Stasyulevicha, 596 p. [in Russian]
Kulish, P. O. (1901). Khmelnytsyna [Khmelnytsyna]. Kyiv: Tipografіya Petra Barskogo, 116 p. [in Ukrainian]
Levitskіy, O. (1901). Ocherki narodnoy zhizni v Malorossіi. [The stories of national life in Malorosia]. Kіevskaya Starina, 10-12, 288–305. [in Ukrainian]
Marchenko, T. M. (2011). Epokha Boghdana Khmeljnycjkogho v rosijsjkij romantychnij kartyni svitu: transformacija foljklornykh, litopysnykh, istorioghrafichnykh tradycij [Bogdan Khmelnitsky's Epoch in the Russian Romantic Picture of the World: Transformation of Folklore, Chronicle, and Historiographic Traditions] (Extended abstract of doctor`s thesis). Simferopol, 43 p. [in Ukrainian]
Macapura, V. I. (2002). Ukrajinsjka tema v rosijsjkij literaturi pershoji polovyny XIX stolittja (problemy evoljuciji, mifologhizaciji, intertekstualjnosti) [The Ukrainian theme in Russian literature of the first half of the 19th century (problems of evolution, mythologization, intertextuality)] (Extended abstract of doctor`s thesis). Simferopol, 33 p. [in Ukrainian]
Narezhnyy, V.T. (1990). Bursak, malorossiyskaya povest [Bursak, Malorosiysk Story]. Moskow: Pravda, 606 p. [in Russian]
Podrygha, V. M. (2008). Ukrajinsjka rosijsjkomovna proza kincja XVIII – pershoji tretyny XIX st. [Ukrainian Russian-speaking prose of the late XVIIIth – first third of the XIXth century] (Extended abstract of candidate`s thesis). Kyiv, 23 p. [in Ukrainian].
Shatalov, D. V. (2014). Zobrazhennja zaporozjkogho kozactva u tvorchosti V. T. Narjezhnogho jak vidbytok masovykh ujavlenj pershoji chverti ХІХ st. [The image of Zaporizhzhya Cossacks in the work of V. T. Narezhnogo as a reflection of mass representations of the first quarter of the 19th century]. Istorija i kuljtura Prydniprov'ja: Nevidomi ta malovidomi storinky, 11, 187–193 [in Ukrainian].
Shatalov, D. V. (2015). Ukrajinsjke kozactvo u suspiljnij dumci drughoji polovyny XVIII – pershoji polovyny XIX st. [Ukrainian Cossacks in the Public Opinion of the second half of the XVIIIth – first half of the XIXth century] (Candidate`s thesis). Dnipropetrovsk, 237 p. [in Ukrainian]
Yakovenko, N. (2007). Vstup do іstorії [Introduction to History]. Kyiv: Kritika, 368 p. [in Ukrainian]
