A JOKE ABOUT TARAS SHEVCHENKO AS AN ARTIST IN THE NOTES OF IVAN PAN’KEVYCH (FROM THE PHONOGRAM ARCHIVES OF THE AUSTRIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND THE PRAGUE LITERARY ARCHIVES)

Abstract

Backgground. The search and publishing of archival folklore texts about Taras Shevchenko remain a current task of the modern Shevchenko heritage studies. This research considers one iteration of the joke about T. Shevchenko and the General’s Portrait painted by him. 

Methods. The author employs a comparative-historical approach, while also considering the specifics of the field anthropological research methodology introduced by the Austrian scholar Rudolf Pöch in the early 20th century. Result. This variant was discovered by an author in two foreign archives: the Phonogram Archives of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Prague Literary Archives. The note was made by the Ukrainian dialectologist and folklore specialist Ivan Pan’kevych in 1915 within the framework of the Vienna anthropological project for recording of the oral speech of the First World War-era prisoners. A teacher Fedir Shevchenko from Kerelivka village, Zvenyhorodskyi powiat of Kyiv governorate, who then happened to be in the Freistadt camp (Upper Austria), was informant of I. Pan’kevych. The joke text is recorded using the phonograph and transcribed in Latin characters. It also exists in the form of a manuscript of I. Pan’kevych kept in its Fund at the Prague Literary Archives (№2718). 

Conclusions. The audio recording of the anecdote about Shevchenko the artist, recorded by I. Pankiewicz, is significant for both folklorists and literary scholars, as there are few authentic texts in their arsenal that have been recorded while preserving the characteristics of oral speech. It is important to attribute this text to the informant Fedor Shevchenko specifically as an anecdote (which serves as a significant argument in attempts to determine the genre affiliation of the recording).

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