Peculiarities of faustian discourse in Ukrainian literature of the first third of the 20th century
Authors:   Ukrainian State University of Chemical Technology, Kulakevych L. , Kovalova N. ,   Ukrainian State University of Chemical Technology
Published: June 2024

The purpose of the article is to examine the theoretical aspects of the perception of the Faustian image and related poetics in Ukrainian literary studies. The task of the research is to review the Faustian discourse in the Ukrainian literature of the first third of the 20th century in the context of world literature. The methodology used in the research includes comparative and analytical methods. In the study, the comments are presented on terminological aspects of understanding the image of Faust in Ukrainian literary studies and the poetics associated with it. It is noted that the term "Faustian discourse" is used in the meaning that encompasses a variety of artistic means referring in one way or another to the image of Faust. It has been found that the Faustian discourse requires the character of a scientist striving to change the world, along with the complex of motives such as making a deal with the devil, messianism, temptation, the desire for knowledge, apostasy, etc. It has been established that the image of Faust was formed based on a German legend that has undergone a long literary evolution over the centuries. It is emphasized that for the first time, the image of a person who cooperated with the devil in order to fulfill his intellectual potential was presented in the work “Mariken van Nieumeghen” (1500) of the unknown Dutch author. The Dutch anonymous develops motives, which will only later be defined as Faustian, and interprets them through gender issues: the impossibility for an intellectually and morally gifted woman to realize herself in society due to the aggressive attitude towards her as someone who is outside the norm, who is a witch and therefore must be persecuted. It is highlighted that in world literature the installation of the scientist's image ready for an alliance with the devil has mainly stemmed from German legend, and it is German literature that has an exclusive role in the formation of Faust's image as archetypal. The process of literary traditionalization of Faustian legends and tales was initiated by “Historia von Dr. Johann Fausten, dem weitbeschreiten Zauberer und Schwartzkünstler” etc. (1587) in the edition of Johann Spies. It is proposed to distinguish three directions of development of the legend itself and the ideas about Faust: Gothic (negative image of the doctor as a heathen, magician, and criminal), romantic (positive image of a scientist who seeks to change the world) and destructive image shaped in the 20th century (a dehumanized image of an artist unable to resist evil). If the Gothic version is outlined in Historia von Dr. Johann Fausten, dem weitbeschreiten Zauberer und Schwartzkünstler, etc., then the creation of the romantic image of Faust and the formation of the concepts das Faustische and Faustischen is related to the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. By virtue of his poem Faust, Eine Tragödie, Faust became the prominent hero of German culture and a metaphor for the archetypal desire of a person to grasp knowledge about the world and himself. The destructive version of Faust's image is most vividly represented by the character of Thomas Mann's novel “Dr. Faustus”, who became a model image of creative genius in the service of evil. The artistic interpretation of the image of Faust in the Ukrainian literature of the first third of the 20th century in the context of world literature is reviewed in the study. It is underlined that the Faustian discourse was extremely popular, which was facilitated by the rapid scientific and technical development at the end of the 19th – the beginning of the 20th century, which also caused an intensive development of science fiction as one of the major trends for adventure metagenre, influenced its agenda and led to a birth of the new type of a character – a genius, an ambitious scientist who seeks to radically change the world, not taking into account the potential consequences of his discoveries. In the Ukrainian literature of the first third of the 20th century, the image of Faust can be traced in the images of a former revolutionary, disappointed by the value system of the new society, an evil genius, and a fanatic scientist, depicted as the positive character, all of them representing the Gothic (the novel by Y. Smolych) and the romantic (novels by V. Vynnychenko, O. Slisarenko) versions of the archetypal image respectively. The classic example of the Faustian discourse realization in the Ukrainian literature of the twenties and thirties years of the twentieth century we consider Oleksa Slisarenko's novel "Black Angel." In one of the characters of the novel, we follow a noticeable transformation of the image of Faust, as well as classic Faustian motifs of scientific discovery for the sake of social changes, love and betrayal, and the circumstances of the hero's mysterious death. Keywords: Faustian, motif of a deal with the devil, motif of finding the meaning of life, Gothic image, romantic image, destructive image, archetypal image.