Alchemical symbolism of the novel “All Corners of the Triangle. The Apocryph of Hryhorii Skovoroda’s Travels” by Volodymyr Yeshkiliev

Abstract

The topicality of this study lies in the relevance of a detailed analysis of the alchemical context of Volodymyr Yeshkiliev’s novel “All Corners of the Triangle. The Apocryph of Hryhorii Skovoroda’s Travels”, which enables a deeper understanding of the poetics of the embodiment of complex processes of protagonists’ spiritual growth by the writer. The subject of the study is the peculiarities of the representation of alchemical symbolism in the ideological and figurative aspects of Yeshkiliev’s novel. The goal of the study is to clarify the meaning of alchemical symbolic and allegorical imagery in revealing the characters of the protagonists, to shape an original innovative artistic interpretation of the image of a Ukrainian philosopher. To achieve the goal, methodological instruments of alchemical-hermeneutic, structural-symbolic, intertextual and biographical analysis are involved.

The novelty of the study lies in the development of a new methodology of alchemical interpretation of the work of art and its application to the analysis of the ideological and imagery system of V. Yeshkiliev’s novel “All Corners of the Triangle. The Apocryph of Hryhorii Skovoroda’s Travels”. The defined approach is deemed prospective for an in-depth analys is of other works of Ukrainian literature.

Based on the research, it was concluded that, while creating the images of Hryhorii Skovoroda and Pavlo Vyhyliarnyi, V. Yeshkiliev involves a complex set of instruments of alchemical hermeneutics, which contributes to the original artistic embodiment of the staged processes of the growth of self-awareness of the protagonists. It is proved that, while developing the plot and artistic images, the writer resorts to a double interpretation of the behavior of the characters in both literal and allegorical (alchemical) terms. Such artistic antithetics fully corresponds to the concept of antithetical philosophy of the Ukrainian thinker, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, finds a broad support in the scientific interpretation of Skovoroda’s worldview positions, defined by Dmytro Chyzhevskyi. The involvement of alchemical teachings and Masonic and Rosicrucian discourse common in the 18th century in Yeshkiliev’s construction of his own artistic version of Skovoroda’s image in the novel “All Corners of the Triangle” forms a completely new view of one of the most prominent representatives of European philosophy of that time.