ДВІ ЗГАДКИ ПРО ПОЛЯ ДЕ КОКА У ШЕВЧЕНКОВІЙ ПОВІСТІ "ХУДОЖНИК": СПРОБА ТЛУМАЧЕННЯ

Abstract

The article is devoted to the references to the novels of the French belletrist Paul de Kock «André le Savoyard» and «Frère Jacques» in Shevchenko’s novel «The Artist». The references are analyzed in two aspects – real biographical and strict literary. In the former case, it deals with the degree of authenticity of the episodes relating to Paul de Kock’s books, in the latter case, it deals with the functional significance, the semantics of the intertextual references to these works. In Shevchenko’s novel, the main character treats both novels of Paul de Kock with indifference, regarding them as easy reading which entertains more than educates. As a future prose writer, Shevchenko could learn a method of direct conversation with the reader from the novel of Paul de Kock though this method was generally widespread in Russian literature of the 1820–1830th. The French writer repeatedly addressed his readers, just as Shevchenko did, but such similarities should be considered as typological coincidences in the arsenal of artistic means. Young Shevchenko read not only the works of «high» literature but did not shun belles lettres, in particular works by Paul de Kock who was famous primarily for his frivolous and joking manner of writing. The Ukrainian prose writer endowed a partially autobiographical hero of his novel with correspondent reader’s preferences. It is evident that he did not treat the creativity of the French novelist as something shameful or unacceptable to a young gifted man. Both novels have an expressive moralizing direction. At the same time, they also depict unattractive moments in the lives of aristocrats, young maids, rogues, and even murderers. The proposed observations complement the study of Shevchenko’s reading circle, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, they contribute to a more complete characteristic of the protagonist of perhaps the best work of the writer.