Image-creating features of an outstanding Cossack — the hero of the novel “Chase” by Y. Mushketyk

Abstract

The subject of the study is the interpretation of the folklore image of an outstanding Cossack character in the historical novel at the turn of the XX–XXI centuries. The appeal of this genre at the present stage to fictional sources and techniques, including myth, parables, fairy tales, fiction, games, compilations, violations of space-time linearity, etc., is a problematic field of wider research. The aim of the article is to determine functioning peculiarities of outstanding Cossack’s image in the artistic world of novel “Chase” by Y. Mushketyk. Results of the Study allowed to claim that in his novel “Chase” (1997) Y. Mushketyk modelled history in accordance to the modern tradition. The artist took the historical era of the Ruins as the basis of his story and led further narration on the principle of road, no wonder that at first sight the novel can be taken as an adventure novel. Pointing out the heredity of generations of outstanding Cossacks, the author prepares readers for perception of the hero, whose unusual abilities he reveals diversely throughout the work. Depicting a colorful portrait of Cossack Semen Belokobylka like a chimerical appearance of Cossack Mamai, Y. Mushketyk gives the novel “Chase” signs of a chimerical genre. According to the genre of road novel Y. Mushketyk reveals unusual abilities of the Cossack in lots of episodes of his journey. With the help of first person singular narration (“I-narration”), the artist transfers his feelings and emotions in extremely difficult conditions. Y. Mushketik gives the Cossack a good sense of humor as a part of his lifestyle. Liveliness gives the Cossack the power to continue the journey and complete the mission to rescue his brethren. In the reflections of outstanding Cossack, the author expresses the idea of the unity of Ukraine and Ukrainians, touches the problem of sense of living, giving the novel features of philosophical genre, significance and relevance of the present. The practical significance of the research results is the ability to form a model for the transformation of the folklore image into a literary one, extending the material of the study to other works of this genre and period.