The dissertation is the first attempt of systematic study of Lesya Ukrainka’s life creation in the socio-cultural fields of her age: socio-political sphere, art, psychological, scientific and philosophical, religious consciousness of the time, household family and friends’, love relations, etc. A key figure in early Ukrainian modernism is the writer presented in a wide range of relationships with artists of his generation –
M. Kotsiubynskyi, V. Stefanyk, O. Kobylianska, O. Oles, L. Starytska-Cherniakhivska. In the paradigm of binary “inter-illumination” features of the formation of new concepts of worldview, creativity, and behavior are revealed.
From the discursive point of view the work is written according to the unity of tradition – of the era as well as of artistic practice, where each sphere reveals the author’s presence in the literary process. The correlation of the established models in the artist’s life creation in the national space with new forms and methods of self-presentation is outlined. In its dynamics, the central option in this was the generational option, because on the links of the generational interaction the validity of the traditional / avant-garde manifests itself most fully. It turned out that even though the Ukrainian modernists did not consider the achievements of the older generation as models, but they did not consider it to be a burden either. So it was not about destroying tradition, but about its distancing and re-actualization.
The phenomenon of the break of the ages becomes the constant of transformations, which define a new era as a reboot, replay, and, consequently, the development by “children” the things started by their “parents”. And this is not only the guarantee of the existence of a national narrative, its reputation and vitality, etc. The potentials for changes and constructive transformations in the ever new world, the willingness to accept its challenges weighed on the underlying resources much more. It means that the native culture was increasingly transposed from the regime of self-preservation and self- sufficiency (populism) into the asset of affirmation, contact and invasion (modern).
Voluntarist factors are systematic in the literary canon. It is about the ideological and formal perfection of the individual artistic world, whose power exceeds the work done by contemporaries and predecessors. Thus, the Ukrainian cultural triad was formed:
T. Shevchenko – I. Franko – Lesya Ukrainka, which was finally secured by the next galaxy of intellectuals. Therefore, in the study it was important to show the process of approval of the general literary canon and the formation within the early modern of its local invariant. The latter is shown its ethical, aesthetic, generational, gender and geolocation coordinates.
Comparing themselves with Lesya Ukrainka, her contemporary colleagues identify the time (historical and cultural) and their presence in it as artistic people with a representative of the new artistic generation. The specifics of the author’s style, author’s poetics are considered in proportion to the style of the polyphony of the era, where the trends of the actual modernism (symbolism, expressionism) coexisted with premodernism and transitive (neo-romanticism, neo-realism) and traditional (realism, romanticism). Accordingly, the formation and evolution of the writer can be traced in the vectors of acceptance / repulsion of innovative artistic practices.
The practical significance of the research is determined by the proposal of new scientific epistemological strategies in philology (specifically, in the science related to Lesya Ukrainka), implemented in the interdisciplinary relations. The results of the dissertation can be used by researchers of Ukrainian modernism, as well as will help to expand the understanding of the processes of literary dynamics and interaction.
