ГЕНЕРАЦІЙНА ТЕОРІЯ ІВАНА ФРАНКА

Abstract

The article is devoted to the generational theory of Ivan Franko. The emphasis is laid on Franko’s interpretation of literary generation, its distinctive features (opposition of generations) and its continuity, which appears in the aspects of form and technique, theme and problem scope, art and ideology, and others. In the descriptions of the literary process, starting from the 19th century, Franko often uses the term «generation», interpreting it slightly wider than a literary generation. Typically, Ukrainian intellectuals with a solid «literary power» are in the center of his attention. It testifi es to the characteristics of three fi gures who are the brightest representatives of three generations in the Ukrainian literary landscape (P. Kulish, M. Drahomanov, M. Grushevskiy), and therefore – three schools of national literature. Ivan Franko, as a critic and literary scholar, considered literary generations in the conventional chronological aspect, dividing them into decades or periods of twenty years. This is indicative in some of his works, such as «From the last decades of the 19th century», «Old and new in modern Ukrainian literature», «Old Rus», as well as in the reviews of books and almanacs that represented the authors of different literary generations. No matter how monolithic the generation was, it always had a place and a rank for each creative personality (leader, follower, master, disciple etc.). Franko singled out the people active in the generation into potential «fi ghters» (Drahomanov, Krymskyi, Konyskyi, Hrinchenko) and quiet, eventempered «artists» in the literal sense of the word (Myrnyi, Nechyi-Levytskyi, Samijlenko, Kotsjubinskyi et al.). In the article «Old and new in modern Ukrainian literature», Franko makes examples of the older (Panas Myrnyi and Karpenko-Karyi) and younger (Kotsyubinsky and Franko Stefanyk) representatives, comparing them in terms of two ways of interpreting reality, calling the fi rst ones – «the Epics», and the second ones – «the Lyrics». The generationbased approach to the study of literary phenomena employed by Ivan Franko resulted in drawing conclusions about the direction of evolutionary change in Ukrainian literature and the prospects for its further development. The evolution of literary trajectories and generational change had many intersecting points with the natural processes within the general literary progress of Franko’s theoretical concepts: he explained the development of literary trajectories through generational changes and vice versa – literary trajectories infl uenced the formation of generations. The qualitative characteristics of literary evolution (directions) and chronological constants (generation) mutually complemented each other. The study of the relations of Franko with the representatives of the youngest generation in the Ukrainian literature is a promising endeavor, where one should tactfully delineate Franko as a theorist, critic and historian of literature in order to take into account all historical and literary dimensions. Franko adequately interpreted the process of changing literary generations, its role for the advancement in literature, and particularly – in specifi c circumstances of Ukrainian national literature. Keywords: literary process, literary generation, generation, literature studies, continuity and struggle of generations, schools of national literature.