Hryhorii Skovoroda Research Articles

Documentary as an effective tool of cultural diplomacy

Abstract. The article presents an overview of three documentary films made in the creative cooperation of director Stanislav Lytvynov and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ihor Ostash, the films’ respective author and presenter. The documentary Bondi, or the Return of Bohdan Wesolowsky (2014) explores the life and contributions of the father of Ukrainian dance music. Through its unique footage, recollections of friends and relatives, and interviews with researchers, the film fosters cultural ties between Ukraine and Canada. Ukrainian Lebanon (2019) is hailed as a ground-breaking cultural diplomacy phenomenon, narrating a story of common cultural history spanning almost two thousand years and drawing parallels between Ukraine and Lebanon. Hryhorii Skovoroda. World, I’m Coming to You! is the first film about the Ukrainian philosopher for an Arabic-speaking audience, offering a glimpse into the philosopher’s life and work. Despite the consequences of the full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine, the film presents the realities of contemporary Ukrainian art. This article introduces the role of documentary cinema in cultural diplomacy, demonstrating its practical effectiveness in shaping a positive image of Ukraine. The author displays how documentary filmmaking enhances Ukraine’s public diplomacy endeavours through collaborative efforts with Ukrainian Ambassador to Canada (2006–11) and the Republic of Lebanon (2016–22). This collective experience effectively portrays Ukraine’s rich culture, facilitates closer interactions, and conveys important messages by employing audiovisual techniques to produce high-quality artistic creations, establishing a precedent of art-diplomacy collaboration, which serves as a reference for diplomats and generates creative and scholarly value for researchers and scholars across diverse fields. Keywords: documentary film, Ukrainian cinema, cultural diplomacy, public diplomacy, Bohdan Wesolowsky, Ukrainian Lebanon, Hryhorii Skovoroda, Ihor Ostash, Stanislav Lytvynov, Embassy of Ukraine in Lebanon.

PHILOSOPHICAL AND EDUCATIONAL HERITAGE OF HRYHORII SKOVORODA AS A PHENOMENON OF THE NATIONAL SPIRIT OF THE UKRAINIAN PEOPLE

The article analyzes the philosophical and educational views of the Ukrainian philosopher Hryhorii Skovoroda and substantiates that the thoughts of the light of Ukrainian spiritual history are a phenomenon of the national spirit of the Ukrainian people, its mentality and allow contemporaries to feel part of the centuries-old strong Ukrainian nation, awaken patriotism during the full-scale armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. It has been established that the philosophical and educational teachings of Hryhorii Skovoroda are valuable when considering the problematic issues of modern domestic education and reveals the views of the educator-humanist regarding the theory of knowledge about three worlds and two natures, about the idea of "kinship", "philosophy of the heart", the problem of finding happiness and clarifies the content of this phenomenon.

Happiness in the works of Hryhorii Skovoroda: a conceptual analysis

Happiness in the works of Hryhorii Skovoroda: a conceptual analysis

The Syntax and Semantics of Modelling Exhibition Spaces: A Case Study of the Hryhorii Skovoroda National Literary and Memorial Museum, Ukraine

The aim of this article is to analyse the exhibition semantics of the exposition of the H.S. Skovoroda National Literary and Memorial Museum (Ukraine, Kharkiv region). The authors substantiate the concept of dearchaisation of Skovoroda’s image by means of modelling the syntax and semantics of the exhibition space. According to the authors, exhibition design cannot ignore symbolism, as the principles of cultural consumption of “places of memory” function in the stream of consumption of a work of art. The viewer does not come for the subject, but for emotions and experience. Therefore, design should go beyond the physical properties of objects, subjects, compositions, and so on, and the content of any design should ultimately be the conditions for gaining new experience. The relationship between the material (object) and the imaginary (interpretation) is projected at the intersection of exhibition syntax and semantic modelling.

INTERPRETATION OF LITURGICAL TEXTS OF IRMOS IN THE WORK OF HRYHORII SKOVORODA

This work is dedicated to ancient collections of chant books of the Kyiv church. Written records of sung liturgical texts remain poorly researched. This determines the special relevance of this study. This work is an attempt to trace the influence of these texts on the formation of the philosophical outlook of Hryhoriy Skovoroda - the Ukrainian philosopher and cultural figure of the 18th century. It is realized by the method of comparative analysis of the creative work of H. Skovoroda with the texts of manuscripts and old editions of church hymns. The publication of Hryhoriy Skovoroda’s works, edited by Leonid Ushkalov, became the basis and major auxiliary material for the work. Therefore, this work is to some extent a creative reinterpretation and addition of this edition, in particular, the liturgical-sung aspect is revealed in more detail. In Skovoroda’s creative heritage, the most frequently cited of the sung works are irmos, although other genres are also mentioned. The theme of images from the canon is predominant, namely the image of the sea through which Moses passed and the sea in which the prophet Jonah drowned, echoes the author with the sea of life. In addition to quoting, the author also uses resinging of liturgical texts. Especially revealing are the ‘Garden of Divine Songs’, ‘The Battle of Archstrategist Michael’, ‘Lot’s Wife’, ‘Dialogue. Its name is serpent’s flood’, as well as separate letters. Specifically notable is the texts of the Christmas Irmos and the ‘Irmos of the Golden Image’: the first is re-sung in the work ‘Garden of Divine Songs’ (song 5), the second is retold in the memoirs of Mykhailo Kovalinsky, as a philosophical reflection. The philosopher also addresses the following topics: the Holy Trinity, both through the liturgical text and through the explanation of the trinity of the Godhead; to the image of Light, the image of the Mother of God. The study of plots, themes, images, and the structure of genres of sacred liturgical poetry, in particular irmos, added to the understanding of H.Skovoroda’s work. Therefore, we can conclude that the sung liturgical texts are organically woven into the works of Hryhorii Skovoroda. In addition, it can be confidently asserted that the lexemes of church hymns were organically included in the vocabulary of the thinking of our church, cultural and public figures, who were also often authors of poetry and prose works.

ЗБЕРЕЖЕННЯ КУЛЬТУРНОЇ СПАДЩИНИ УКРАЇНИ В УМОВАХ ВІЙНИ: ПРАКТИКИ МІЖНАРОДНОЇ ВЗАЄМОДІЇ

The article deals with the experience of preserving cultural heritage in the armed conflict in Ukraine and international cooperation in this field. The historical reconstruction of the legal protection of cultural heritage is carried out. It is indicated in the article that during the 19th century, international legal bases for the preservation of cultural heritage were actively developed. However, in the 20th century, two world wars brought significant destruction of cultural heritage by all parties of the conflict. And the optimism of the Europeans of the 19th century regarding a civilized attitude to cultural heritage was destroyed, although the work on the creation of international normative documents in the field continued and international organizations were founded that took care of cultural heritage. In the 21st century, the previous trends persist. Such reconstruction can become the context for the Ukrainian situation. To clarify it, the method of situational analysis is used. The situations with the Hryhorii Skovoroda museum in the village of Skovorodinivka in the Kharkiv region and the Ivankiv Local History Museum unfold in time and space and focus the theoretical framework. In the article, the author addresses the problem of the biography of a place, which is relevant in modern social sciences and humanities. Despite objections to anthropomorphization, scholars emphasize the close link of places and human destinies there. Skovorodinivka ceases to be exclusively a place of memory of an outstanding Ukrainian philosopher and becomes evidence of the attitude towards the object of cultural heritage in the current war. The article shows that in Ukraine today, the war is blurring the "battlefield" and military actions are spreading to the territory where the civilian population and cultural heritage sites are located. The striking difference in the attitude towards the cultural heritage of mankind during the military conflicts of the optimistic modern XIX and the postmodernist relativistic XX centuries illustrates the loss of position by modern phenomena. The situation with the Hryhorii Skovoroda museum testifies that today international aid comes for the preservation of the destroyed cultural artifacts. International cooperation is also essential in the issue of digitizing the cultural heritage of Ukraine and creating conditions for its preservation. The article indicates the initiatives of SUCHO (Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online) and the Vasa Museum, Stockholm, on this path

Emblematic codes of Hryhorii Skovoroda’s dialogue A Colloquy, called “Alphabet,” or “Primer of Peace”

The paper focuses on the features, origin, and functions of Hryhorii Skovoroda’s (1722–1794) emblematic language (speech) in the dialogue A Colloquy, called “Alphabet,” or “Primer of Peace”. The objective is to study the emblematic arrangements of Hryhorii Skovoroda within the European emblematic literature context, focusing on eventual intertextual relations and striking semiotic interactions. The text of the paper interprets the artistic and stylistic features of the emblematic construction of eide of the Ukrainian writer, their sources, contexts, and the author’s conceptual nominations. Theoretical generalizations are made primarily from the text of Skovoroda’s dialogue A Colloquy, called “Alphabet,” or “Primer of Peace”, as well as from his other works, the scholars’ works, and the European literary context. The structural-semiotic methodology has been employed to trace the identified issues. The main idea of the paper is to highlight the dominance of the emblematic way of meaning stating in Hryhorii Skovoroda, thus, the emblematic code as the core in the sense-modelling activities. Emblematic forms have a special place in the coverage of anthropological, metaphysical, ethical, aesthetic, and hermeneutic eide of the Ukrainian poet and philosopher. Skovoroda considers emblematics as a particularly effective visual-verbal (iconic-conventional) type of signification functioning as a kind of refined meta-language, an ancient arcane semiosis practice of intellectuals. He had his personal insight into the nature, structure, and potential of such an expression, which was elaborated by the long-term, permanent hermeneutics of biblical texts, formed on the logic and metaphysics of ancient philosophers, the context of literary and artistic baroque, European emblematic models. Skovoroda uses significative re-referencing as a means of interpretation, therefore, individual images, embodied in the word, resemble semiotic bunches, concise visual-verbal meaning-making entities, disclosed through associations, comparisons, oppositions, metaphors, and structural-emblematic representation.

КіноСковорода: кінематографічна актуалізація біографії

The article concerns the relevance of the issue of genre heredity between literature and cinema. The cinematography actively turned to the genre of biography even in the first decades of its development, in the era of the silents. It did not disappear from the view of cinematographers throughout the 20th century. Recently, this genre has been activated both in cinema and on television, which increased the interest of researchers. Hence, the receptive problematics of the Ukrainian philosopher, theologian, poet and teacher Hryhorii Skovoroda’s biography (1722–1794) is analysed in the cinematographic discourse. It was noticed that the figure of the outstanding philosopher did not attract the proper attention of cinematographers either in Soviet period (only one feature film and one documentary film were shot) or in the time of Ukraine’s Independence. However, even those few films only partially represent the “Ukrainian Socrates” to the viewer. It is stated that documentary production, in contrast to the feature films, is represented by a number of films about Hryhorii Skovoroda, which, of course, differ in their quality and creative potential. However, having an aesthetic and cognitive value, they all present a certain way of processing biographical material (letters, memories, stories of contemporaries), his writings and creative works (philosophical, literary, musical works) and perform an important function of popularizing this outstanding personality and his creative heritage. It is concluded that the cinematographic actualization of the philosopher’s biography and works in recent decades is due to the new historical situation, to the desire to perceive his legacy in a new light, to debunk the existing biographical myths. Skovoroda’s philosophical ideas not only remain relevant in the 21st century, but also appear as markers of Ukrainian identity in the modern reality.

TRAINING FUTURE FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHERS AS INNOVATIVE UPBRINGING WORK MANAGERS (BASED ON THE COMPETENCE APPROACH, INDEX OF SATISFACTION AND PROFESSIOGRAM)

The paper investigates the training future foreign language teachers as innovative upbringing work managers based on the competence approach, index of satisfaction and professiogram in the context of Ukrainian higher education reforming. The research questions whether future foreign language teachers are satisfied with the upbringing work at pedagogical universities and pragmatically competent in it, and what the reasons of their dissatisfaction are. The authors developed the blocks of indicators that characterize the level of the future teachers training for innovative upbringing activity, including a questionnaire related to determining the level of their satisfaction with the upbringing work. The self-esteem of 148 students (2-3 study years) of the Faculty of Ukrainian and Foreign Philology of Hryhorii Skovoroda University in Pereiaslav showed that the majority of respondents (85%) expressed satisfaction with the upbringing work at the faculty and University; 15% of respondents expressed their indifference and dissatisfaction, giving the thought about the reasons of that, which could be their incompetency in it and not involving in the upbringing activity, the absence of interest and motivation for it (because of old upbringing methods, forms and approaches etc.). On the ground of the results of the research, the authors defined the professiogram of a modern foreign language teacher as a manager of innovative upbringing work, grounding on the key competences required of a European teacher. Moreover 5 main reasons for designing the program of the future foreign language teachers training to innovative upbringing work (based on a competence approach, index of satisfaction and professiogram) were identified as: the necessity of the education quality improving by the way of reforming it; the need of raising the level of students’ satisfaction with educational and upbringing process, and with a future profession in general; the new European demand for teachers in their key competences; the changing role of a teacher into a manager of curricular and extracurricular process at school, according to a new professiogram of a modern foreign language teacher as a manager of innovative upbringing work; the need to transform the upbringing process into the innovative one, according to the modern time period. The research results of this pre experimental stage will allow forming the future teachers’ readiness for an innovative upbringing work.

Poetry as a Resource for Restoring Emotional Balance

Objective. The article is aimed at analyzing the poetic experience of amateurs, members of the community of Hryhorii Skovoroda University in Pereiaslav (HSUP), as an effective psychotherapeutic method of restoring emotional balance during the full-scale war of Russia against Ukraine; considering the participation of librarians of other higher education institutions of Ukraine in poetry during wartime. Methods. The experience of amateur poets birthed through pain, love, suffering, care during March-October 2022, in the period of Russian-Ukrainian war, is analyzed in the context of poetry therapy as a resource for restoring emotional balance and vital energy. Results. Creation of author’s poems, including amateur texts, gives us the opportunity to fantasize, develop our hidden abilities, as well as to read and communicate with other like-minded people. This is clearly demonstrated in the work of wartime by students, teachers, and librarians. Conclusions. Every creative person shows pain in their own format available to them. In this way of self-healing, a person becomes calmer, restores the mental atmosphere, meets their inner “I.”

Образ Григорія Сковороди в аудіовізуальних документах XX століття (до 300-річчя від дня народження)

The purpose of the study is to consider the peculiarities of representations of the image of Hryhorii Skovoroda in audiovisual documents and to outline their place among other receptive practices of the 20th century; to characterize the document array dedicated to the thinker in the collection of the Central State Audiovisual and Electronic Archives. Research methods. The research is based on theoretical developments and concepts of Ukrainian and foreign scientists in the fi eld of source studies, archival studies, and fi lm studies. The work was carried out using general scientifi c methods of analysis and synthesis based on the principles of historicism and objectivity. The methods of source criticism, chronological, systematic, and typological analysis were also used when covering the topic. Scientifi c novelty. The study of the representation of H. Skovoroda’s image in audiovisual documents (except feature fi lms) has not yet been the subject of scientifi c studies. The study of the processes and forms of conscious perpetuation of prominent fi gures of national culture is important and relevant, because it contributes to the understanding of how the past, present and future of society and culture are seen in a certain historical context. Prospects for further research. Video fi lms, television programs, and photo documents created in the 21st century remained outside the limits of our intelligence. The fi gure and creativity of H. Skovoroda in the anniversary year of his birth and in the conditions of aggression of Russia Federation against Ukraine is a fairly articulated topic in the Ukrainian cultural environment, and further study of the reception dynamics and the originality of representations of the thinker’s image can be a productive direction in the research of the historical and cultural memory of Ukraine society of the 21st century. Conclusions. The analysis of audiovisual documents from the collection of the Central State Audiovisual and Electronic Archives, dedicated to H. Skovoroda, proved that they are interesting examples of the forms of cultural memory of Ukrainian society and an informative source for the study of images and ideas that appear in the mass consciousness through the focus of audiovisual documents.

Hryhorii Skovoroda as a Liminal Hero of Ukrainian Culture

The article is devoted to the analysis of the cultural and socio-political situation in Ukraine in the 18th century. At that time the administrative and social transformations took place, and the ethos of the old Ukrainian Cossack’s culture was replaced by the imperial order. That cultural borderline allows us to understand the philosophical and life extraordinariness of Hryhorii Skovoroda. Instead of choosing one of these socio-cultural poles, he remained “on the edge,” in a state of transition or liminality, which made his position vulnerable but at the same time free from social stereotypes. In cultural anthropology, the concept of liminality indicates a transitional position of man in the social system. A person could be in a liminal position only for a short period of time. This experience of individualization and being apart from the social system was so rare for the ordinary everyday life of collectivist cultures that made an unforgettable impression on a person. The wandering philosopher Hryhorii Skovoroda completely falls under the characteristics of a liminal hero, but at his own request, he remained in a borderline position refusing to return to an orderly social system. Therefore, considering the features of his vital liminality helps to understand deeper the phenomenon of philosophical Skovorodianism.

“When There Is Harmony in the Family…”: From Hryhorii Skovoroda to Epigraphic Embroidery

This article focuses on the famous folklorized text De zghoda v rodyni, tam myr i tyshyna, shchaslyvi tam liudy, blazhenna storona (“When there is harmony in the family, peace and quiet are there, these people are happy and this land is blessed”), mainly on its genesis and connection with Hryhorii Skovoroda. At the first sight, its authorship is clear and easy to identify. It seems obvious that these lines come from the play Natalka Poltavka by Ivan Kotliarevskyi, who was, in his turn, deeply influenced by Hryhorii Skovoroda. However, the folklorization of this verse, which is, subsequently, of great research interest, has caused numerous misattributions of the authorship. The article illustrates the folklorization of these famous lines with concrete examples of epigraphic embroideries listed on the author’s Interactive Online Index of Folklore Formulas (Epigraphic Embroidery).

“Similis Simili Gaudet”: Lavrentii Kordet and Hryhorii Skovoroda

The paper examines the connections between the rector of Kharkiv Collegium, Archimandrite Lavrentii Kordet, and some of the close friends, acquaintances, and correspondents of Hryhorii Skovoroda. The main focus is on Kordet’s intellectual biography and the essential features of interpersonal communication among the faculty of Kharkiv Collegium in the second half of the 18th century. The study draws on the principles of network analysis and reconstruction of intellectual network models. The author argues that Lavrentii Kordet, Hryhorii Skovoroda, and some of their friends connected with Kharkiv Collegium (Mykhailo Kovalynskyi, Yov Bazylevych, etc.) embodied the type of person whose identity centered on intellectual activity. They devoted a significant portion of their lives to academic teaching, cared about professional self-improvement, and kept up with the latest scholarly and literary works. These intellectuals engaged in active “academic communication” with their colleagues, which was designed to generate specific activities aimed at dissemination of learning. The community of which Lavrentii Kordet and Hryhorii Skovoroda were part clearly represented a new type of intellectual relations in the lands of Sloboda Ukraine.

Greek Content in the Work of Hryhorii Skovoroda: Intertextual Dimensions or Artistic Bilingualism of the Author?

The purpose of the article is to raise a question on reasons for the availability of Greek content in the work of the great Ukrainian thinker Hryhorii Skovoroda and on the functions of bi-/ multilingualism of his texts. The relevance of the study is based on the contradiction between the objective need to reveal the phenomenon of artistic bilingualism and the features of his polycode text caused by verbal and cogitative activity of his creative bilingual personality. The author of the article concludes that the emergence of texts of bi-/polylingual personalities is preceded by a change in their worldview and the formation of a new culture and language space. Thus, the implementation of the linguistic and worldview approaches of Hryhorii Skovoroda is based on the old Ukrainian literary and written tradition of the late 16th–18th centuries, guarded within the walls of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Exploring the artistic models of the writer’s world, the researcher focuses on the definition of intertextual connections, in particular on the fact of intertextuality. In the article the phenomenon of bilingualism is discussed contextually and correlates with the problem of intercultural contacts and influences.

Multitude of Images of Hryhorii Skovoroda in the Works of Kyiv Theological Academy Teachers and Students (19th – early 20th Century)

This is the first article recreating the full history of research on the Ukrainian philosopher Hryhorii Skovoroda made by students and teachers of the Kyiv Theological Academy in the second half of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century. The analysis highlights the qualitative diversity of research interpretations of Skovoroda’s figure and his creative work in cultural, historical, and biographical contexts, while identifying common features that unite those different scientific perceptions. The article demonstrates that the academic research interest in Skovoroda’s heritage was both due to the desire to introduce this little-known at that time figure of the Ukrainian thinker by creating a variety of attractive images, and to prove that idealistic direction prevailed in local philosophy since the beginning of its formation. Disclosing the multilayered structure of interpretations of Skovoroda present in the scientific studies of theological academic researchers, enabled the author to show simultaneous unity and diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches found within the national academic interpretational field and determined by different philosophical, scientific, cultural, educational, and sociopolitical priorities of researchers.

Reliable, Possible, and Improbable About Student Years of Hryhorii Skovoroda

To this day the biography of young man Hryhorii Skovoroda is mostly a set of assumptions and conjectures than history about his life based on more or less authentic facts. Even the year of the philosopher’s birth is not as obvious as it is commonly supposed. Excessive trust in the specific work of Mykhailo Kovalynskyi about Skovoroda attempts to adjust those up to thinker’s time sources to much later information of Kovalynskyi’s work harm the critical study of Hryhoriy Savych’s biography. In this article on the basis of both well-known and new facts the established historiographical statements about the time of Skovoroda’s birth and education are revised or questioned. He could not start his studies at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy before 1738/39 and completed them, most likely, no later than January 1750. It seems the gap in Hryhorii’s studying because of his singing in the court chapel lasted longer than scholars assumed before.

Retranslating Skovoroda’s Conversation on Happiness into English: Language and Cultural Challenges

The article focuses on Hryhorii Skovoroda’s philosophical dialogue dedicated to the nature of human and happiness as a bright example of a harmonious fusion of philosophical ideas and individual style. A comparative analysis based on a hermeneutic approach helped to assess the equivalency in representing the lexical, syntactical, and emotional levels of the reconstructed Ukrainian version of Skovoroda’s dialogue via English translation, and thus contribute to clarifying the reliable strategies of translating a chronologically remote text of philosophical discourse. The research stresses the importance for a translator of philosophical works of Hryhorii Skovoroda to thoroughly consider the contextual meaning, inseparability of the concepts and style, and unique syntactic and emotive patterns of the source text conflating explicit and implicit semantics. In addition to deep understanding by translators of key philosophical terms, charged with contextual connotations, an equivalent translation of philosophic texts also demands sufficient knowledge of the related historical, cultural, and linguistic background to ensure a comprehensive perception of the intended senses and vectors of the mental activity by a reader.

The Motive of Discrepancy in Hryhorii Skovoroda’s Works

The article explores the discrepancy of the form and the content as a philosophical, moral and axiological problem in the works of Hryhorii Skovoroda. Using the phenomenological reading and structural analysis, the author investigates the interaction between the form and the content in treatises, soliloquies, poems, and letters of Skovoroda. The intellectual and aesthetic background of the Baroque epoch to a large extent explains why this motive of discrepancy occupies a prominent place among the writings of the Ukrainian philosopher. The article analyzes the main plots, in which the discrepancy is revealed: vocation against non-congenial work; a real friend and a flunkey; the truth and a false thing; and the heavenly and an earthly city. After considering all these aspects and other crucial issues, it is concluded what makes the problem of discrepancy an invariant motive in the works of Hryhorii Skovoroda.

Emblematic Patterns and Metaphysical Meanings of Hryhorii Skovoroda

The focus of the author’s attention has been on the emblematic sense concentration in the philosophical system of Hryhorii Skovoroda. The study aims to reveal the artistic and style features of eide emblematic formation in the texts of the Ukrainian sophist, their origin, context, and conceptual classification by the author himself. The theoretical generalizations were essentially based on the philosophical treatises and dialogues by Hryhorii Skovoroda and the studies of other scholars. To analyze the issues under scrutiny, the author applied structuralist and semiotic methodology. The article highlights the emblematic sense, conveyance, and dominance in Skovoroda’s works. Emblematic forms of signification play a unique role in elucidating the anthropological, metaphysical, ethical, aesthetic, and hermeneutic dimensions of the Ukrainian poet and philosopher. Skovoroda considers emblemacity a particularly effective pictorial and verbal (iconic-conventional) type of “significative” speech, functioning as metalanguage.