The present thesis undertakes for the first time a comparative study of flash fiction works of Ukrainian and Russian writers-emigrants during 1919–1939, studies its problem-thematic vectors, common and distinctive features regarding genre and style.
For many writers, the expulsion became an inevitable step. Despite poor conditions, solitude, depression, humiliation and miserable existence, Ukrainian and Russian writers created magnificent examples of flash fiction works in various genre forms. Comparative research covers a wide range of corresponding material. The present thesis introduces works of famous writers of Ukrainian and Russian expatriate community of the first wave of emigration represented by A. Averchenko, V. Vynnychenko, H. Hazdanov, Z. Hippius, Don-Aminado, O. Kuprin, Yu. Lypa, L. Mosendz, V. Nabokov, Sasha Chornyi, Teffi, I. Shmeliov, as well as works by scantily studied writers such as M. Baikov, N. Berberova, Lesya Verkhovynka, Dariya Vikonska, O. Hrytsai, V. Koroliv-Staryi, Yu. Kosach, R. Kupchynskyi, S. Levynskyi, I. Lukash, A. Nesmielov, M. Osorhin, Halyna Orlivna, I. Savin, D. Tiahnyhore, V. Khmeliuk, A. Chekmanovskyi, V. Fedorov, O. Khrapko-Drahomanova and others. It would have been impossible to present an exhaustive overview of the literary process of Ukraine and Russia of the first half of the 20th century without these names.
The flash fiction forms which were only defined in their genre at the end of the 20th century and recognized in science are being pointed out. Considering new genre phenomena, their attributes are being outlined or specified; traditional genres and their modifications under new historic conditions are being reviewed.
The thesis defines a special stage in the development of flash emigration prose of twenty years of the interwar period which is called documentary-publicistic since the majority of works of this heroic and at the same time tragic period were written by authors who directly participated in significant military and revolutionary events.
Contact-genetic connections in the Ukrainian and Russian expatriate community literature of the interwar period of twenty years are being studied. National and cultural characteristics of flash prose, conditioned by peculiarities of national life and people’s mindset, are being discovered. Similarities and differences of literary emigration representatives’ works are being outlined at thematic, genologic, poetic as well as style levels.
Most typological coincidences are being revealed at thematic level. For many writers, common themes are represented by the October revolution and the «Bolshevist paradise», existential aspects of life in emigration, anti-war orientation and the theme of «the lost generation», patriotic motives, search for a national and cultural archetype example (Pushkiniana and Shevchenkiana), emigrational Leniniana, maternal code, antique and oriental theme.
Writers extended the boundaries of thematic orientation and works’ social and historical problematics in various genres: the topics of war and peace, anti-Bolshevist position and imperceptions of communist doctrines, motherland, national liberation struggle, childhood etc.
At the genologic level, there are four groups of the flash prose’s works of all genres: novella and stories; joint literary-publicistic (feuilleton, pamphlet, article, essay), close to which are utopia and anti-utopia; «folklore» (fairy tale, myth, parable, legend, short story); miniature-fragmentary (poetry in prose, sketch, watercolour, pendant icon, picture, grotesque, aphorism). Work analysis of Ukrainian (Yu. Kosach, O. Hrytsai) and Russian (V. Nabokov, Maxim Gorky) writers, as well as its constituent (N. Berberova, N. Fedorova, V. O’Connor-Vilinska, K. Hrynevycheva, O. Khrapko-Drahomanova) enables us to point out a dominance of a story over a novella during the period of literary emigration in 1919–1939.
Works of «fact literature», which we outlined as a group of joint literary-publicistic genres, play a special role. They include an article, essay, feuilleton and pamphlet. Writers used factual, statistic and biographical materials, and figuratively interpreted life facts of the first third of the 20th century.
