UKRAINIAN VERSIONS OF CLASSIC PLOTS AND CHARACTERS: ANENT THE QUESTION OF THE EUROPEAN CANON

Abstract

The article focuses on the interpretation by Y. Boyko-Blokhin, Ukrainian emigre literary critic, of Ukrainian versions of traditional plots and characters, his thoughts are actualized with reflections of other researchers about the problem of European identity, and in particular with a variety of views on the European cultural heritage. An approach of the Ukrainian scholar to investigation of the outlined problem (with special attention to peculiarities of the national literature, and an emphasis on clarifying "mechanisms" of creative transformation of traditional material) is conceptualized from the perspective of the literary studies of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st century. Arguments of the scholar concerning authenticity of Ukrainian versions of traditional characters, namely Prometheus (T. Shevchenko "The Caucasus"), Cain (I. Franko "The Death of Cain") and Don Juan (Lesia Ukrainka "The Stone Host"), are analyzed and comprehended in the European context, with due consideration for previous tradition, from the standpoint of the problem of style. Conclusions of the scholar are construed as representational for Ukrainian literature as an integral part of the European cultural space. An important role of conceptual ideas of the scholar, which remain relevant even for contemporary comparative literature studies, not only by contributing to continuous development of national comparative literature (given the impossibility of their full-fledged progress throughout several decades under the ideological pressure), but also regarding the forthcoming of "reformatting" of the global Slavic studies, is substantiated in view of the question of searching for the European canon.