Фольклорні мотиви українського романтизму Олекси Стороженка (на прикладі твору "Марко Проклятий")

Abstract

The article aims to promote the works of the Ukrainian romantic writer Oleksa Storozhenko. The regional peculiarities of Ukrainian romanticism have been analyzed in the example of his work Marko Prokliatyi (Marco the Cursed). It was claimed that Ukrainian literature of the early XIX century contributed to the nation’s preservation during the statelessness of Ukraine.The freedom of the author’s artistic self-expression is found in his attention to mysticism, insanity, obsession, passion, addiction, and love. The author’s thoughts plunged into the unreal, delirium (illusions), dreams, fantasy, the demonic, and mysticism, and went deep into the subconscious and the spiritual world, while searching and idealizing God the Creator without denying the dualistic world order.Based on Ukrainian folkloric tradition and the use of the elements of Gothic and European literature, Oleksa Storozhenko depicts the travels of the eternal wanderer (Marco in the Ukrainian tradition), who is a werewolf, that is evil disguised as a man, and later, after the curse and for atonement (Christian idealism), he turns into a Cossack and takes part in the events of the XVII century and acts in the “here and now”.