Ukrainianness in the Literary Studies of Professor Oleksiy Chicherin

Abstract

The article discusses the Ukrainian literary interests of Professor Oleksiy Chicherin (1900-1989), Doctor of Philology, in his separate articles, literary criticism and scholarly reviews. The aim of the article is to highlight the most important episodes of reading and interpreting the literary heritage of Ivan Franko, esp. regarding the methodology of research into the Ukrainian writer and their comparative aspect. Research methodology. The article employs a systematic approach with the application of literary-historical, genetic and comparative methods. Basing the research on these methods has clarified O. Chicherin’s reading into the works by some French and Russian writers in Ivan Franko’s critical studies, Shakespeare’s place in Ukrainian literature, and Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky’s innovations in the genre of «small» prose. Results. The study presents an almost thirty-year long history of the scholar’s interest in I. Franko’s literary reading classical Ukrainian literature. Scholarly novelty. The article is the pioneering study in Ukrainian literary criticism dealing with Ukrainianness in the literary heritage of Professor Oleksiy Chicherin, especially when it comes to the works by Mykola Gogol, Taras Shevchenko, entry into Ukrainian culture of W. Shakespeare’s dramaturgy and the works by K.E. Franzos. Practical value. The article may provide a basis for a more profound reading into the scholarly heritage of the famous literary scholar, cognition of the methodology of his scholarly search. into the works of E. Zola, F. Dostoyevsky, G. Uspensky, particularly in the comparative aspect, episodic mentions of the more prominent representatives of