"Lonely man" near the "Bukovinian and Pokut peasants". Something about the Peculiarities of the Formation of the Ukrainian Literary Canon

The article considers the formation of the Ukrainian literary canon. The article focuses on the figure of Lesya Ukrainka – the third figure of the classical Ukrainian triad (along with the romantic Taras Shevchenko and the realist Ivan Franko). The purpose of this article is determined by the process and circumstances of the appearance and consolidation of the writer in the national canon. The realization of this goal was carried out in the context of the interaction of the leading author of the era with contemporary artists, as well as contenders for a prominent place in literature. The theoretical basis for scientific research are the concepts of modern American researchers G. Bloom and E. Said. It is these scholars who have developed two leading models of understanding and interpretation of the literary canon today – “elitist” and “democratic”. Reinforced by the considerations of Ukrainian researchers, the theoretical foundations of this article made it possible to structure the era of early Ukrainian modernism in the perspectives indicated. As a result, socio-cultural and gender factors of functioning and building of the canon were outlined; the phenomenon of female presence in patriarchal culture is analyzed; the specifics of the nomination and self-presentation of three original artists of the frontier period are described (along with Lesya Ukrainka, it is also Vasyl Stefanyk and Olga Kobylyanska); the influence and significance of the mechanisms of selection and approval of candidates for the top of the literary canon are revealed. The conclusions of this article emphasize the outlined results, in particular in the field of comparing the understanding of the canon with the populist, Soviet and modern traditions. This perspective also took into account the interaction of masculine and feminine codes, which in different ways were “eroded” in each of the eras. However, the intellectual and aesthetic value of the literary work still confirmed the female presence in the canon