CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL BASIC OF DUMA ABOUT OLEKSII POPOVYCH IN THE FOLKLORISTIC VISIONS OF KATERYNA HRUSHEVSKA

Abstract

The article reinterprets the scientific achievements of K. Hrushevska, in particular, her vision of the cultural and historical basic of Duma about Oleksii Popovych, set forth in the work “Duma about Popovych’s sea adventure. Reasons for studying adventure traditions” (1926). The author suggested that the Ukrainian seafarers had an extensive system of traditions and rituals, which was described in the Ukrainian heroic epic and proves that Ukrainians are seafaring people. K. Hrushevska, having researching the widest comparative material – both folklore and historical-ethnographic – came to the conclusion that Duma reflects the tradition of going to sea, and therefore, with the help of the ethnographer V. Kravchenko, a native of Berduansk at the seaside, she collected the materials about traditions and rituals of local fishermen belonging to the group of transition rituals. Based on the opinion of K. Hrushevska and work of researchers of rituals of passage (Arnold van Gennep, Victor Turner, Korniy Chervyak, etc.), as well as fundamental research on the Ukrainian heroic epic of Sofia Hrytsa, the authors of this article came to the conclusion that Duma about Oleksiy Popovych gives information about several other cultural sections, in particular, related to the Cossacks, also described in transition ritual. In particular, every sea campaign of the Ukrainian Cossacks was associated with dangers and involved certain ritual actions. It is described with three-stage transition rituals: separation from society and traditional environment → transition stage of journey, with temporary release from usual social ties and → reaggregation upon returning home. And being far from own land – in the sea, with all its dangers, was liminal (borderline, that is, beyond the border of own world). Dumy also include the Ukrainian society’s ideas about Zaporizhzhia and Zaporozhtsi as a border region and society that was also outside the usual social world. Therefore, we have opposite behavior of the hero during his trip to the Sich, which was obviously not a single incident.