Poetic Metaphysics of Ivan Kovaci’s Prose

Abstract

The article under studies presents the first ever attempt to reveal the basic features of the prose of the prominent Ukrainian poet, prose writer, literary critic, and journalist Ivan Kovaci (born in 1946). It lays particular emphasis on the peculiarities of modeling the chronotope of the prose contained in three books by the writer: “A Sycamore Tree Alone in the Field” (1974), “Chuha” (1976), and “Orange Ballad” (2006). It also analyzes the narrative strategy of the writer’s artistic thinking at the level of lyrical confession of the narrative, investigates its genre specificity and the role of leitmotif detail, as well as traces the synthesis of arts in writer’s creative workshop at the level of coloring, etc. In terms of genre and style features, Ivan Kovaci’s prose is comprised of stories of various types: both lyricized, with a weakened plot, and works that are close to the genre of the classical short story. Their structure is based on an eloquent detail that creates an appropriate emotional coloring. The article claims that prose is an organic and natural part of Ivan Kovacs’s creative activity. Lyricized short stories, etudes, short stories with classical architectonics, a short story-ballad, confessional lyrical prose, together with poetry, create the unity of his artistic world. The peculiarity of the poetic metaphysics of the writer’s prose lies in his peculiar worldview pantheism and subtle sense of beauty. It is essential that the time-space of prose is also close to poetry: it is a “point” chronotope, located at the intersection of the coordinates of the “objective” (given in the narrator’s perception) and subjective-experiential space-time. This feature is especially evident in the story “Chuha”, a kind of mosaic of life. Fictional time and space are subject to mythologization and symbolization, as the lyrical hero is constantly trying to cross the line that separates him from the “golden age” of childhood. Another sign of the poetic nature of the writer’s prose is its deep psychology combined with lyricism. The most eloquent feature of Ivan Kovaci’s style is his special ability to use color. This peculiar synthesis of arts in the writer’s creative palette turned out to be a special, symbolic load of images with a bright coloristic dominant.