H. KVITKA-OSNOVIANENKO À LA E. SWEDENBORG: DEMONIC AS COLONIAL

The paper offers a reinterpretation of a well-known classical literary work, focusing on its acquisition of new meanings, emancipation from the narrow framework of the ethnographic narrative, and discovery of resistance intentions within the context of postcolonial criticism. The research work explores the mechanisms by which the ideas of the Swedish mystic E. Swedenborg influenced H. Kvitka-Osnovianenko’s concepts of the afterlife. It also scrutinizes the incorporation of hell’s topology into the temporal and spatial dimensions of “The Easter of the Dead” and traces the doctrines explaining the idea of souls, the origins of human evil, the nature of sins and their consequences. Analogies and correspondences between worlds, the symbolism of national space, and the anthropology of corporeality are analyzed within the carnival realm and reinterpreted through the lens of Ukrainian burlesque and travesty traditions. Kvitka-Osnovianenko’s story contains links between demonological narratives, myths, legends, and, on the other hand, colonization by fear, an irrational sense of guilt, and the inevitable punishment of the enslaved by a repressive community. The use of the demonic as a tool to influence the reader is determined by the logic of the author’s tropological thinking within the context of imperial censorship, dual identity, and demonstration of political loyalty. The creative use of archaic genre elements, travesty, and parody of folklore motifs affected the interpretation of the irrational, which was subjected to formalization and intertwined with ideology and hidden anti-colonial rhetoric. The colonization by myths, visualized by monstrous pictures and the fears they instill, is juxtaposed with their deconstruction, disenchanted with laughter, the healing power of the carnival, and replication of an ancient tradition in the collective memory. The secret of the ‘national narrative’ of “The Easter of the Dead” lies in this process.