INTERPRETATION OF TARAS SHEVCHENKO’S RELATIONSHIP WITH THE HERN FAMILY IN SHEVCHENKIANA

Abstract

The article focuses on a rather controversial episode in Taras Shevchenko’s life in exile – his relationship with Karl Hern and his wife Sofia. It is noted that there is a fairly wide range of interpretations of this topic, in particular as an element of Shevchenkophobia in Shevchenko Studies and Shevchenkiana. The relatively small memory base of the episode is analyzed, as well as various commentaries on it in Shevchenko’s biographies (by M. Chaly, O. Konysky, I. Dzyuba etc.). The obvious provocativeness and bias of certain interpretations of the depicted theme in the works of B. Sushynsky and S. Rosovetsky, as well as an even wider range of its interpretation in the multi-genre biographical Shevchenkiana, the influence of the socio-historical circumstances of the time when the works were written (aspect of creative freedom and censorship), are noted. It is observed that in Shevchenkiana novels of the 1960s–1980s (by O. Ivanenko, B. Vadetsky, Z. Tulub, Vas. Shevchuk), despite the contradictions of history, the ‘revealing’ tendency dominates in the creation of Shevchenko’s position in it, “Shevchenko hunted for the honour of his friend”. The practice and role of fictional operations, primarily in the part of image creation, and the techniques of plot contexts for additional accentuation of the desired trend are considered. It should be noted that in the biography of Shevchenko of the last thirty years, the analyzed theme found different interpretations, in particular in the ‘dramatic story’ of “Angry Bug” by M. Bratan and the novel of “Shevchenko between the worlds” by S. Rosovetsky. The article analyzes in detail the creative embodiment of the analyzed topic in both texts, stresses the differences in its interpretation by the authors.