IINTERPRETATION OF TARAS SHEVCHENKO’S RELATIONSHIP WITH AHATA USKOVA IN THE LITERARY SHEVCHENKIANA (ARTICLE TWO: SHEVCHENKIANA 2000–2010S)

Abstract

This investigation continues the consideration of the declared topic, which was started in the first article, included in one of the previous issues of “Scientific Notes” [1], but the object of analysis here is the works of Shevchenkiana, written in the last thirty years in the conditions of creative freedom of artists, when it became possible, particularly in biographical works about Taras Shevchenko, turn to aspects of the private life of the poet-artist, to his relationships with women. In a number of works on Shevchenko, including the Shevchenko encyclopedia, it is noted that the researchers do not pay attention to the mentioned issues in order to show the social space of the existence of the Ukrainian genius in a wider way. It is noted here that this practice led to the impoverishment and simplification of the image of Shevchenko, in whose real-life relations with women played a significant role. The article analyzes the creative interpretations of the history of the relationship between Taras Hryhorovych and Ahata Uskova, by the authors of biographical works about Shevchenko, studies its source and documentary base in detail, notes the peculiarities of the social and everyday context (actually, the completely servile position of Shevchenko in the soldiery), when this story took place. It is noted that the availability of sufficiently broad source information (letters, Diary, literary and painting works) about the relationship between Shevchenko and Uskova limited the possibilities of artistic conjectures or fictions about them. At the same time, it is emphasized that the same richness of the source base caused a number of quite similar interpretations of the analyzed history in the works of Shevchenkiana or in the few studies written on the topic of “Shevchenko and women”, e.g., in the publications of Yuriy Kovtun, Myron Kozak, Stanislav Repyakh. In the second article, research attention is focused on the novels of Antonia Tsvid, Valentyn Chemerys, Oleksandr Denysenko, the film script of Lev Khmelkovsky, the level of artistic embodiment of the analyzed theme in each of the works is noted.