Kryvopyshyna K. Genre and Style Peculiarities and Problems of the Literary Prose by Vasyl Zakharchenko

The thesis explores the work of the Ukrainian writer Vasyl Zakharchenko in genre-style and problem-thematic aspects for the first time. The research represents the critical and scientific receptions of the writer’s creative achievements in the context of the literature of that period. For the first time, more than 150 works of short stories and novels have become the object of complex analysis («Old Stork’s Cluttering», «Arriving People», «Long Twilight», «Fair», «Drink Water from Your Well», «Cold Cameo Profile»). Considerable attention is also given to the analysis of V. Zakharchenko’s early stories («Path», «Measure of Mercy», «Mozar», «Tornado») as an important element in the creative evolution of literary prose from small to large genres. Systematic analysis of creative work has made it possible to distinguish the genre varieties of short prose (short story, novelette, «obrazok», «shkits», etude, «watercolor»). The multi-genre and at first glance thematically diverse heritage is united by the Ukrainian-centricity of the problems and the artistic «exploration» of a certain Ukrainian problem or tragedy (Holodomor, war time, crimes of the totalitarian system), and in a holistic way these texts present a broad picture of the Ukrainian reality of the twentieth century. Considerable attention has been paid to the literary and critical reception of the writer’s work. Using the writer’s diaries, memoirs of contemporaries and personal interviews with the writer made it possible to present the periodization of V. Zakharchenko’s creative path for the first time and to clarify his scientific biography, in particular to find out another year of birth – 1935.