Verhaeren’s scattered gems in Ukrainian belles lettres (Maksym Rylsky, Lina Kostenko, Іvan Denysiuk, Solomiya Pavlychko et al.)

Abstract

The article examines some facts of reception by certain 20–21 cc. Ukrainian poets and literary scholars of the Belgian Francophone writer Emile Verhaeren (1855–1916). The aim of the paper consists in covering extraordinary episodes related to critical reading and scholarly interpretation of the Belgian literature classic’s literary legacy by accentuating the basic issues of his activity. Research methodology. The article employs systemic approach with the application of literary-historical, genetic and comparative methods. Basing on these methods made it possible to clarify the history of interpreting some samples of Emile Verhaeren’s poetry by outstanding Ukrainian writers and literary scholars, specify the reasons urging them to take an interest in particular belles lettres texts of the Belgian classic. Results. The research provides facts of interpreting the poetic legacy by Emile Verhaeren unemployed up till now for scholarly treatment in Verhaeren Studies. Talk is also about those translations of poems by the Belgian classic that have served as a basis for critical study of the scholarly problems raised in this article. Research novelty. The article is an interesting page in the entry of Emile Verhaeren’s poetic oeuvre in certain periods of forming Ukrainian literary theory, particularly its comparative studies. It is valuable to attract the eloquent facts of scholarly interest in the work of the prominent Belgian during the first twenty years of the 21^st c. Practical value. The article can become a basis for learning the history of reading the legacy of the outstanding Belgian French-speaking poet both by Ukrainian belles lettres on the whole and literary scholars in Ukraine.