GENRE EVOLUTION AND EPOCH CORRELATION: FROM ENEIDA TO BU-BA-BU

Abstract

The article contains an analysis of the function of a genre in an artistic interpretation of the occurrence of decolonization processes in Ukraine. The subject of the study is the poetical and publicist writings of the members of Bu-Ba-Bu, a literary performance group, as compared to Eneida written by Kotliarevsky. The author demonstrates various capabilities of the genre implemented through various means of creation of a work of literature and chosen by an artist in consideration of the text perception. The author pointed out that the genre is an important factor of the literary tradition, genre traditionbearers, and embodiment of previous cultural heritage. The sources of creativity of Bu-Ba-Bu poets who announced burlesque, farce, and buffoonery – artistic phenomena historically non-exhaustive for the Ukrainian literature – were studied based on the aesthetics of the culture of humor, satire, parody, folk and carnival, stylistic mix of movements and trends of different epochs. The artistic phenomena serving as a basis for the rejection of the socialist realist canon, the formation of a new poetic view of life, aesthetic revaluation, and reconsideration of the previous literary heritage were emphasized. The important source of Bu-Ba-Bu’s works was Kotliarevsky’s experience, the introduction of colonial patterns, destruction of the imperial discourse, creation of specific type of cultural identification. Kotliarevsky’s work introduced the Ukrainians to the dimension of selfsufficiency, a full-scale linguistic, cultural, and artistic environment. In the times of Kotliarevsky change of the cultural space by redirecting it to the Ukrainian-speaking readers was a challenge to the empire, which promoted an opposition mentality. By resorting to the past Bu-Ba-Bu affirmed the strategic potency of the ancient legacy of Ukrainian literature and culture and suggested an alternative to official literature and ideology aiming, just like Kotliarevsky, to make fun of their epoch in a sophisticated way. Such perception of Kotliarevsky’s work is affirmed by poetic manifestations of Bu-Ba-Bu members. The author states that the intersection of history and the present, re-coding of the historical environment into the present-day environment in various dimensions, filling it with modern life, and pressing issues with a clear focus on readers has genre character.