OVERVIEW OF THE MAIN TENDENCIES OF THE NATIONAL LITERATURE DEVELOPMENT IN THE EPISTOLARY OF LESYA UKRAINKA

Abstract

Purpose. The article presents a comprehensive analysis of Lesya Ukrainka’s epistolary critique, traces the writer’s characteristic perception of the Ukrainian literary process evaluation, reveals both the individual priorities of the author and the overall development of literary criticism at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, argues the basic principles of the world modernism within the national culture. The problems associated with this kind of research are described.

Methods. In the process of analyzing the epistolary of Lesya Ukrainka, both general scientific and special literary methods were used. The research is based on the general scientific method of synthesis, analysis, observation, selection and systematization of the material. The elements of mythological, psychoanalytic, hermeneutic, anthropocentric approaches have been partially applied. The cultural and historical method was used in the analysis of the critical narrative of history and cultural and artistic constants in the epistolary; descriptive method – in order to analyze individual-authorial priorities and general tendencies of development of Lesya Ukrainka’s literary-critical discourse; structural-semiotic method - when constructing a chronotopic paradigm of critical thought. Results. While analyzing typological phenomena in the national literary process, tracing their origins, it was found that primary in the epistolary the author revealed her ideological-aesthetic attitude to the world of each creative personality, determined her position, the own attitude to her role in the cultural space. Conclusions. Taking into account the content metric of the analyzed letters, it was concluded that the author was quite well oriented in her contemporary literary directions and styles, clearly distinguishing the specific features of each of them, even if those features were barely differentiated. Attention is focused on the key characteristics of Lesya Ukrainka’s epistolary and critical literature discourse – presentation and analysis of the work of Ukrainian writers in the context of the best European models, the destruction of the traditional myth of the “provincialism” of national literature, the elaboration of individual features of cultural authenticity. It was noted that Lesya Ukrainka acknowledged the unprofessionalism of literary criticism as a key problem that hindered the development of Ukrainian literature. It was concluded that the writer’s epistolary not only outlined the general tendencies of the development of Ukrainian literature at the turn of the century, but also represented the poet’s view on the artistic style and philosophy of creativity