Mykhailo Hrushevsky and His Francophonic «Anthologie de la littérature ukrainienne» (1921) in Belgian and French Publications of the 20th and 21stcenturies (in Ukrainian) 7-15

Abstract

Mykhailo Hrushevsky’s presence in French culture dates back to the beginning of the 20^th century (a course of lectures in Paris, a review of É. Verhaeren’s drama, a 1912 Paris edition, etc.). Scholar’s most outstanding work in the context of Ukrainian-Francophone literary relations is his «Anthologie de la literature ukrainienne» (1921), which helped Francophone researchers learn about the literary heritage of Ukraine from ancient times to the 19^th century. The main thesis of the article is the importance of this anthology in further acquaintance of the French speaking world with Ukrainian literature. The preface to this book written by the French linguist professor Antoine Meillet of College de France was important as it emphasized such an significant fact about the publication as «literature in Ukrainian not well known in other countries». M. Hrushevsky explained that it was only the first step of Ukrainian sociological institute which started its work on creation of the anthology of Ukrainian literature of later period. Materials from the edition of Ukrainian Sociological Institute were partly used in 1928 by the editorship of the Belgian-French magazine «La Nervie», being completed by some other samples of Ukrainian literature of the second half of the 19^th century and the first two decades of the 20^thcentury. Another fact that testifies about the importance ofHrushevsky’s anthology is that the outstanding French scholar and literary critic Roger Tisserand, the author of numerous encyclopedia articles about Ukrainian writers and the work «Life of a nation. Ukraine», referred to it more than once using some samples of Ukrainian poetry. Two excerpts from Mykhailo Hrushevsky’s edition («Galician–Volhynian Chronicle» (fragment) and «Praise to St. Volodymyr») were reprinted in Vol. 4a (1993) by the compilers of Belgian encyclopaedia «Patrimoine littéraireeuropéen» (12 vols.). A separate chapter about Mykhailo Hrushevsky and an excerpt from his foreword to the «Anthologie…» were included into Sarcelles anthology of Ukrainian literature (2004) by literary scholar Arkady Zhukovsky. The scholar described extensively Mykhailo Hrushevsky with special focus on his scholarly-research work, teaching and organization of academic life.The literary critic illustrated life and creative activity of the scholar by extracts from the preface to «Anthologie de la littérature ukrainienne…» and gave a short explanation of the issues, raised by Mykhailo Hrushevsky in his subsequent works. The material in the article about the resonance of  M. Hrushevsky’s French anthology in the French speaking milieu testifies to the presence of the outstanding scholar, historian and literary critic in European culture. Such works as André Mazon’s memorable article in the Slavic journal «Le Monde Slave» (V. 12, № 1–2, 1935) and A. Joukovsky’s French language research «Mykhailo Hrouchevskyi. Sa vie et son œuvre. Paris, 1997» are of great interest.