Ukrainian proletarian literature: issues of the modern approach

Abstract

The author of the article substantiates the existence of a proletarian concept as a separate historical phenomenon and a theoretical construct in the Ukrainian literature of 1919-1934 period. This articles discusses such problematic aspects of proletarian discourse as chronology, genealogy, revolutionary semantics, normative poetics, concepts of proletarian avant-garde and proletarian Europeanism. The article concludes that: 1) the modern study of proletarian literary discourse must take into account the whole array of texts of the proletarian type, including pre-revolutionary ones, as well as those created by Western Ukrainian adherents of proletarian art and representatives of Ukrainian political emigration, among whom there were supporters of Marxist ideas; 2) the appearance of texts of the proletarian type in Ukraine was both historically justified and politically determined; 3) the proletarian stage of Ukrainian Soviet literature embraces period between 1919 and 1934; 4) the literary narratives of 1919-1934 are notable for their response to the realities and attitudes of the revolutionary / post-revolutionary era; there is contamination and conflict between two revolutions (proletarian and national) in their structures, and the image of revolution as a negative entity or trauma in the proletarian critique becomes the criterion that calls into question the identification of the text as of proletarian type; 5) During the period between 1919 and 1934, the conceptions of proletarian and socialist culture are often synonymous, however, gradually, negativism toward proletarian culture becomes an important component of Marxist critique; 6) socialist realism replaces proletarian realism.