In the thesis, for the first time, various semantic variations of development of the image of Taras Shevchenko in the Ukrainian fiction and biographical novelism of 1980-2010 have been systematically investigated, the main features of the evolution of the corresponding tendencies from the native Shevchenko's novelism were scrutinized. The key typological features of biographical novels as a literary meta-genre (characteristics of genre types, documentation support, narrative, chronotope) were determined and analyzed, the history and peculiarities of development of Ukrainian historical-biographical prose and science dealing with it (biographies) were observed, in particular in comparison with corresponding tendencies in foreign literatures. Shevchenko’s artistic and biographical literary compositions, especially narrative and novel compositions, were called the most significant and in many ways the defining segment of Ukrainian biographical novels. The stages of development of the epic Shevchenko’s literary compositions (anniversaries celebration factor!) were analyzed; the fundamental importance of the artist's creative freedom, its determining value for the artistically valuable and historically true, integral image of the main character (here - Taras Shevchenko) was established. More than 20 novels about Taras Shevchenko, written in the 1980s and 1980s, were analyzed under the selected topic, while the features of the image of the main character in them were comprehended from different perspectives. In particular, emphasis was placed on representation in the novels of the childhood of Taras as an important stage of his making creative and ideological choice, on Shevchenko's love of freedom, his deep understanding of living in freedom / captivity, in particular with regard to Ukraine. The fact was substantiated that the novelists, using Shevchenko’s works, memories of him, and other sources had created the image of a genius as a leading man of the era, both, in the social, comprehension-historical-philosophical sense, as well as in a purely creative sense – as an outstanding poet and artist. An important character-developing technique in the novels was description of the figure of Taras Hryhorovych being among his contemporaries, among the diverse environment at different periods of his life.
