Abstract
When studying Polish Romantic historical poems, the motifs of Polish-Ukrainian reconciliation and unity appear repeatedly (out of the entire number of the ’Ukrainian school’ of Polish Romanticism, this is the most common of J. B. Zaleski). However, no matter how positive this narrative seems for Ukrainian recipient, this approach leads to an objectified view of Ukraine and Ukrainians for readers of other nations. We see the need to (re)read and deconstruct the myth of Ukraine, which would reveal the Ukrainian view of self-expression, as an urgent problem in the study of Zaleski’s literary legacy. The unique position of the Ukrainian researcher allows to reach the subjectivity and dismiss possible prejudices about what is depicted by the first author and to make a qualitative contribution to this part of the Polish Borderland discourse. The research is initiated on the subject of everything from the sphere of Ukrainianness, which is subject for Zaleski to mythologize. The aspect of myth-making is rarely raised by literary critics in relation to any writers. A poet on the Borderland, who accepted his Ukrainian identity is a rather rare case, therefore interesting to study. The priority of studying B. Zaleski’s heritage can be seen in his belonging to the paradigm of similarities, the discourse of finding points of contact with Polish culture, understanding and reconciliation. Any studies on the vision of Ukraine are also useful for studying the external perception of Ukrainianness by the represantatives of other nations. In this article we aim to determine the genesis, aspects and functions of the mythologizing of Ukraine in the poetry of B. Zaleski during his creative life on the basis of poems containing Ukrainian attributes (history, folklore, geography, etc.), the mutual influence of the myth of Ukraine and the dual identity of Zaleski, to show the multi-layered attitude of the Polish poet to Ukraine and Ukrainians in interaction with the Polish ethnic group and beyond.
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