Implementation of nomadic practices in creativity of Hryhorii Skovoroda and Taras Shevchenko

Abstract

In view of modern social demands, understanding of nomadic practices regarding formation of a worldview and search for ways of self-realization of an individual acquires special relevance. The embodiment of nomadic practices of vagantism in the life and work of Hryhorii Skovoroda and Taras Shevchenko is considered. If Hryhorii Skovoroda earned a living on his own and studied in his homeland, Taras Shevchenko mostly lived at the expense of patrons and received his education abroad. The authorities persistently tried to sedentarize both of them: Hryhorii Skovoroda was invited to the imperial court, and Taras Shevchenko was imprisoned. Hryhorii Skovoroda’s enlightening activity was aimed at exposing social defects, and the educational one was directed at introduction of innovative education methods, creation of one’s own system for evaluating knowledge, abilities and skills of schoolchildren and students, which resonate with the modern scale. Taras Shevchenko was concerned with preservation of the ethnographic heritage of the Ukrainian people and participated in political life, created his own picture of the world, gave moral and value instructions. Both figures introduced practices similar to nomadic ones, participating in creation of neo-tribes: Taras Shevchenko implemented his democratic beliefs in the Cyril and Methodius Society, Hryhorii Skovoroda nurtured the idea of the “Heaven Republic”. Awareness of his own unconformity with the world forced Hryhorii Skovoroda to renounce its charms in favor of seclusion and a wandering life, instead, Taras Shevchenko’s personal freedom was limited by punitive authorities. The nomadic features inherent in the self-awareness and self-realization of Hryhorii Skovoroda and Taras Shevchenko, determined by the totality of the given circumstances, are compared. It is noted that public servants, applying nomadic practices similar to mobbing, constantly reminded them of their low social status, “uselessness to the world and time”, and also tried in every possible way to hinder the innovative cultural and political activities of Taras Shevchenko, the innovative educational and philosophical activities of Hryhorii Skovoroda. It has been established that Hryhorii Skovoroda and Taras Shevchenko were people who were significantly ahead of their time in terms of their way of life and thinking. The purpose of the article is to embody nomadic practices in the works of Hryhorii Skovoroda and Taras Shevchenko.