LESIA UKRAINKA’S EXTRACTS FROM SHEVCHENKO’S WORKS: TOUCHES TO THE COMMENTARY

Abstract

Background. The parameters of Lesia Ukrainka’s familiarity with Taras Shevchenko’s works and his role in the writer’s biography have been the subject of study by many researchers. At the same time, some issues remain unclear due to the lack of reliable sources. The valuable first publication of Lesia Ukrainka’s autograph extracts from Shevchenko’s poetry in the Complete Works in 14 volumes was a significant enrichment of the still limited material on this topic. There are no reliable grounds for determining even approximately the time when these pencil notes appeared because the poetess referred to Shevchenko’s works quite often throughout her life. The author of the article aims to make some clarifications to the commentary in the aforementioned collection of works, and most importantly to try to find out which edition of Shevchenko’s works the poetess used.

Methods. Traditional textology methods of description and comparison are used.

Results. The discrepancies between the text of the poetess’s extracts and the modern academic edition of Shevchenko’s works in 12 volumes, stated in the commentary of the Complete Works of Lesia Ukrainka in 14 volumes, are quite natural, because in the nineteenth century the compilers of the editions did not yet have all known autographs and other materials at their disposal. The choice of the main text source does not always coincide with the decision of modern textual scholars, etc. At the same time, it is the peculiarities of the quoted texts that make it possible to identify the source of the extracts. Lesia Ukrainka's notes are compared with the texts of the Prague edition of ‘Kobzar’ of 1876, the Geneva edition of 1890, and ‘Kobzar’ of 1907.

Conclusions. Based on the fact that the quotations in the extracts, the sequence of works, as well as the peculiarities of the autograph’s spelling correspond to the first part of the miniature Geneva edition of ‘Kobzar’ of 1878, compiled by Hwedir Vovk, it is concluded that this edition (or the stereotypical one of 1881) should be considered the probable source of Lesia Ukrainka’s notes.

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References

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