Emma Andievska’s Philosophical Tales and Fables by Hryhorii Skovoroda: Textual Dialogs

Abstract

The paper compares Hryhorii Skovoroda’s fables and Emma Andiievska’s tales. These works proved to be thematically and stylistically related. They refl ect the dominant literary features of both authors, such as philosophical, didactic, symbolic, and aphoristic accents. The analysis is focused on the collections “Fables of Kharkіv”  and “Tales” (30 and 18 texts respectively). The researcher explores the similarity of the works within their plots, ideas, and stylistics. Both fables and fairy tales show dialectical understanding of the antagonism hidden in the visible and invisible facets of the human life and world. Friendship, creativity, and courage of being oneself are common topics for these texts, where they are interpreted in the light of cordocentric philosophy and by means of the allegorical language of symbols. Despite the similarity of motives, the works by Emma Andiievskа keep considerable originality in content. She elaborates the themes of good and evil, faith, hope, and freedom, while Hryhorii Skovoroda is focused on the symbolic understanding of the Bible. The similar features urge to relate the writers’ texts at the stylistic level as well. A dialogue, a parable, a moral conclusion are inherent both in the fables and fairy tales. In addition, the works may be related due to the form of expression, the allegories, the symbolic imagery, and common prototext. The fairy tales by Andiievska, like the fables by Skovoroda, are rooted both in the folklore and the Bible. However, while the fairy tales reveal the prototext mainly through the interpretation of the plots, in the fables it is reflected at the lexical level. The compared works also have an extensive system of aphorisms (the folk and the authors’ ones), which reflect their main ideas.