Artistic Historicism in V. Rutkivsky's Novel “Dzhuras of cossack Shvaika”

Abstract

The article deals with the peculiarities of historicism in Volodymyr Rutkivsky's novel “Dzhuras of Cossack Shvaika”. The historicism of V. Rutkivsky's works is presented not in its narrow interpretation – as an appeal to real historical facts and introduction of as many historical heroes as possible into the fabric of the text, but in a broad sense – as an artistic attempt understanding of Ukrainian history. It is emphasized that, despite the lack of historical facts and historical characters, the author managed to recreate the historical era of the late fifteenth century. This is the period of Cossacks emergence on Ukrainian lands. Thanks to artistic conjecture, the writer described the motives that moved Ukrainians at a crucial time to comprehend their own identity, which later led to the emergence of the center of Ukrainian statehood. The aim of the writer is to outline the historical landmarks for the formation of the Ukrainian national idea at the present stage with his historical adventure novels. This goal is realized through the reception of historical reconstruction. The reference points of the assertion of historical memory are the mentions of Kievan Rus, the battle of Blue Waters and the Cossack victory in the defense of the native land. The writer tries to instill to young reader a reverent attitude to the history of his land, presents an effective mechanism of self-determination of Ukrainians in the context of social and political relations – to respect himself as a descendant and successor of the traditions of his predecessors. V. Rutkivsky's artistic imagination helped to comprehend the causes and consequences of Ukrainian-Tatar contacts, to depict the historically accurate experience of previous generations. As a true historian, V. Rutkivsky shows the past not only of the Ukrainian ethnolinguistic community, but also of the foreign one, which lived in the territory that is now part of the Ukrainian state. The analysis of the artistic mastery peculiarities of the specific historical content in V. Rutkivsky's works proved the commonality of approaches in the depiction of historical reality in the novels “Blue Waters” and “Dzhuras of Cossack Shvaika”. It is proved that the mention of historical events in the novel performs several functions – contribute to the fabula unfolding, affect the vicissitudes of the novel, help to show the characters better.