AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND THE “SPIRIT OF TIME” IN A. KRYMSKYI’S NIGILIST NOVEL “ANDRII LAGOVSKYI”

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of Ahatanhel Krymskyi’s novel “Andrew Lagovskyi” in terms of reflecting the “spirit of the times” (decadence, hysteria, plebeianism), the actualization of the philosophy of nihilism, imperial colonialism. Such a critical perspective determined the structure of the article. The focus is on the psychotype of a new character in the literature of the modern era – “hysterical man”. It is noted that the two defining features of modernism – intellectualism and neuroticism – link Krymskyi with modernism. The comparison of this feature of Krymskyi’s work with the works of art of Ivan Franko (collection “Withered Leaves”) and Lesia Ukrainka (“Blue Rose”) was made. It is emphasized that at the end of the XIX century. the notion of a biographical “human document” is transformed into a subjective “psychological document”, and the artistic image into a “vivisection” and introspection – a self-analysis of one’s own soul. It is concluded that the new literature and, in particular, the emerging modern subject clearly tended to decadence, and the new authors unequivocally associated themselves with the decadents, even though they denied it. All this undermined the foundations of populist consciousness, that is, the worship of the “people” that dominated Ukrainian literature in the Shevchenko era. The linguistic diversity of the Krymskyi’s narrative is noted, in particular, the saturation of the text of the novel with quotations, translations, scientific commentaries, transitions to Greek, Turkish, German, French, Latin, and Russian. Socio-cultural value is noted in relation to fragments of vernacular language practice of the mother of the main character. Textual phenomena such as insinuation and orientalism have been noted. Ahatanhel Krymskyi’s unfinished novel is considered as a model of a modernist novel with its intellectual hero, polymorphic structure, philosophical and moral themes, psychological analysis and autobiography.