The dissertation is devoted to the conceptualization of social factors that helped Ukrainian writers to turn from the state of amateur to professional one and to consolidate the socio-professional status in Ukrainian society.
At any historical time, a group of people united by a certain joint (related) work, goal, interests, etc., tries to gain recognition among people as professionals and at the same time as a social group. From the point of view of the social group, writers as a social group began to form on the territory of Ukraine since the spread of writing (that is, since the times of Kievan Rus - Nestor Litopysets, unknown author of ‘Slovo o polku Ihorevim’.
By the end of the 18th century, the vast majority of literature written in Ukraine was in a foreign language, from Church Slavonic to Polish. Nevertheless, the Ukrainian language (folk dialects, mainly in the central region – Kyiv-Poltava) have already begun to gain a foothold in Ukrainian literature: the so-called poetry of Mandrivni Djaky (itinerant deacons) and lesser-known interludes to dramas written by teachers of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
A significant event of transformation of Ukrainian literature into a social group are the literary works of I. Kotlyarevsky, when Ukrainian-language works (written in the Poltava vernacular) became popular in the Russian Empire and gave rise to a whole gallery of followers.
However, until the 1920s, writing in Ukrainian was more as a challenge to society than the norm. Especially bearing in mind the constant bans on the usage of the Ukrainian language in any public sphere, both in the Russian Empire and in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The final consolidation of Ukrainian (Ukrainian-language) literature in public opinion as a social group took place in the 1920s and 1930s, when writers' associations began to be supported at the state level by individual writers, and the authority took over most of the controlling functions. In addition, the course of indigenization, which began in 1923, enshrined in Ukrainian-language literature the right to legally legal existence, and its creators were allocated in a separate social group.
Despite the fact that many centuries in Ukraine exists literary works (on the territory of Ukraine), it did not acquire the status of a professional until the beginning of the XIX century. As we know from the classic works of sociology and social philosophy, the profession arises not only where there is a vocation and social need as a result of this work, but also the ability to receive material assistance for this work, i.e. the ability to buy livelihood for the work done . In the case of literary works, it is an honorarium. That is why this issue, as one of the aspects of the formation of Ukrainian literature as a socio-professional group, is addressed in the dissertation. Confirmation of the getting of honorarium for literary and translation works of Ukrainian writers is illustrated by excerpts from the correspondence of authors among themselves, with relatives or editors (publishers).
As in the case of the formation of Ukrainian literature as a social group, the beginning of Ukrainian writers as a professional group account from I. Kotlyarevsky. There is documentary evidence about his honorarium, as well as his attempts to protect his copyrights. It is not excluded that writers used to write works for a honorarium, but this was mostly ordered by a person or organization, was on non-regular base and was not considered by the author of the literary work as the main income (or at least significant). The final consolidation of the title of professional group in Ukrainian literature took place in the 1920s, when Soviet publishing houses set prices for a line of poetry or a prose work. That is, writers were recognized not only by society (and recognition became more widespread in the XIXth century), but also by the state as professionals.
The dissertation also includes the results of the author 's research of Ukrainian writers of the 1920s and 1930s. An unrepresentative statistical study of the interaction (interaction) of social factors (origin, education, place of work, etc.) and literary works (themes of works) was conducted to determine the main trends in the interaction of social and individual characteristics of writers of 1920-1930s, when Ukrainian literature has already formed into a socio-professional group. The results obtained by the author have been confirmed by other sources.
Particular attention is paid to gender difference of the formation of Ukrainian writers as a socio-professional group, as their formations was a parallel path, but still had its defining features, imposed by the then social norms and stereotypes.
