Marko Vovchok’s Novelette «Marusia» as a Factor in French Nation-Building (1870s–1880s)

Abstract

The article presents a Francophone reading of Marko Vovchok’s historical novelette «Marusia» (1871), owing to which the writeress’s creativity acquired Romantic pathos. The paper a i m s at clarifying interesting moments in the reception of this work on the part of French writers and literary scholars in view of their emphasis on the extraordinary nature of the events depicted by the Ukrainian authoress as close to the French historical realia dating back to the second half of the 19th c. Research methods. The article employs the systemic approach with the literary-historical, genetic and comparative methods applied. On the strength of these methods, clarification was made of the entry of Marko Vovchok’s historical novelette into the Francophone discourse of the time. Results. The research offers interesting facts of reading the Ukrainian female writer’s work by the famous French literati and publishers of the period in question. Scholarly novelty. The paper makes an interesting page in the reading of Marko Vovchok’s novelette in a French interpretation during the complex period in the French history of the 1870s-1880s.Practical value. The article can provide a basis for getting to know one of the pages in the age-old history of Ukrainian-Francophone literary contacts.