ANTI-COLONIAL PROBLEMS OF HRYHORIY KVITKA-OSNOVIANENKO’S SOCIAL-HOUSEHOLD COMEDIES

Abstract

Purpose. The task of this article is to study the specifics of the formation and development of anti-colonial problems in the nationalliterature of the first half of the XIX century, embodied in the social-household comedies of Hrygoriy Kvitka-Osnovyanenko “A visitor fromthe capital, or the Bustle in the county town”, “Noble elections”, “Shelmenko – volost clerk”, “Clairvoyant” and “Shelmenko – batman”.

Methods. The research is based on general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, observation, selection and systematizationof material. Elements of the historical and literary approach contributed to the study of the colonial policy of the imperial governmentin Ukraine, that impressed the formation of the artist's life views, as well as the development of social comedy as a genre in nationalliterature. Problem-thematic, philosophical, figurative and psychoanalytic approaches were used in the study of the author's reflectedanti-colonial problems in the content of social-household comedies.

Results. The article analyzes the special approach of G. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko to the creation of social-household comedies, whichwas based on the ambiguity of the artist’s worldview. The playwright's worldview is characterized by a combination of patriarchalideas with enlightenment realism, which is addressed to christian humanism. The analysis of genre and stylistic features of dramaticworks, the worldview of the author, helped to clarify the ideological and problematic content of comedies. It is proved that the traditionsof classicist satire (Moliere and Nicolas Boileau) and the principles of artistic generalization of symbolic images were used by the authorto show the formation of the Ukrainian elite, which, formed under the influence of the empire colonial policy of the time of Catherine II,turned into a new social class, called the “new nobles”. Realism in a satirical image has become a unifying element of the artist's socialhouseholdcomedies. The bilingual play presented the author's appeal to his compatriots to understand Moscow's colonial influence totheir lives for the sake of future fixes their own “lost national consciousness” and sharpening their focus on destructive colonial means.

Conclusions. A systematic analysis of Hryhoriy Kvitka-Osnovyanenko’s social-household comedies made it possible to detectboth individual and authorial views to the colonization of Ukraine (loss of human dignity by new nobles, their corruption, meannessand superstition) and trends in the development of anti-colonial ideas in the national drama (connection of romanticism withenlightenment and humanistic ideas of Moliere, Nicolas Boileau, J.-J. Rousseau) of the first half of the XIX century.