МИХАЙЛО ГРУШЕВСЬКИЙ ЯК ІСТОРИК УКРАЇНСЬКОГО ФОЛЬКЛОРУ

Abstract

The article highlights Mykhailo Hrushevskyi’s scientific views on the problem of historicism of the Ukrainian oral literature and periodization of folk songs. The scientific and critical reception of the historical literary strategies of the author, the essence of the main discussion questions addressed by the reviewers is clarified to the researcher. Based on the analysis of folkloristic volumes "History of Ukrainian Literature" and separate ethnological works of the scientist trace the formation of the methodological foundations of M. Hrushevskyi, a folklorist, established their conceptual affiliation to the positivist stage of Ukrainian cultural historical school, it was found that some of his research ideas corresponded to the provisions of the French school genetic sociology. The folkloristic development’s study of one of the most authoritative historians of the late 19th and early 20th centuries showed the scientific productivity of his conceptual considerations regarding the chronology of folklore phenomena and their application in further folklore studies. In the theoretical aspect, the problem of the relation between folklore and literature in the research from the point of M. Hrushevskyi is revealed, which is considered in two interwoven planes: 1) the origin of oral folk literature and its specifics; 2) the issue of common study of folklore and literature. It has been found that, using the inductive method in the interpretation of the folklore tradition, M. Hrushevskyi had critical attitude towards the extremes of comparativism and at the same time he deeply respected the research effectiveness of the historical-comparative method of studying and clarifying similarities and borrowings, as well as determining the national specificity of oral Ukrainian literature. As a scientist with a historical mindset, the researcher penetrates through the layers of centuries and millennia, presents a scientifically based chronology of the stages of the development of Ukrainian folklore, explains the theory of the origin of literature, tries to trace the oral literature before the Slavs’ settlement and after it, catches the echo of creativity of tribal times, researches and reconstructs army poetry.