Novels by Pavlo Volvach as an urbanistic context of personality’s formation

Abstract

The article is devoted to the textual study of novels by contemporary Ukrainian writer by Pavlo Volvach ―Klyasa‖ and ―Khreschatyk-plaza‖. Author's text are considered in the context of globalization processes that are active at the turn of XX-XXI centuries. The analysis of the urban context of formation of the personality of the hero due to the fact, that Ukrainian literature is still seen as rural. Novels author written in the context of urban novels of the early XXI century (―Rivne/Rovno‖ (2001) by Alexander Irvanets, ―Voroshilovgrad‖ (2010) Sergei Zhadan, ―Nostalgia‖ (2016) Yevgeniya Kononenko, ―Klyasa‖ (2003), ―Khreschatyk-plaza‖ (2013) by Pavlo Volvach) that continue the tradition of the novel ―City‖ (1928) by Valerian Podmogylny. The purpose of this article is to analyse the influence of the city on the formation of personality. The article uses biographical, comparative, psychological methods of research of creativity. The first novel by P. Volvach ―Klyasa‖ (2004) represents a stage in the formation of character, experience, and understanding themselves in the world. The author portrays one day in the life of ―lumpen-aesthete‖ Pasha ―interior industrial Zaporizhzhia‖. The urban context of identity formation is the factory districts of Zaporizhzhia, smoke and smog, beer stalls, model houses and interiors of Soviet times. If the hero of the novel ―Klyasa‖ is in the process of becoming, of choice, he is characterized by traditional youth, vibrations, thoughts and wanderings, the hero of the novel ―Khreschatik-plaza‖ at first glance, with life's priorities decided, but, as many analyses and reflects. The second novel ―Khreschatik-plaza‖ (2013) continues the study of the influence of environment on personality and also has autobiographical elements. Hero is in the capital and trying to identify themselves simultaneously in an office environment (work stations) and in the medium of creative writing. However, not only affect character, but also the city. Analyzing novels by Pavlo Volvach ―Klyasa‖ and ―Khreschatyk-plaza‖, we came to the conclusion that they are clearly labeled urban. The hero of the first novel is at the stage of formation of personality, is influenced by the industrial society of Zaporizhzhia, at the same time is part of it and separate individual. The hero of the second is in the process of change — moving to Kyiv, trip to Prague, the victory of creativity over professional; he seeks to fit into the metropolitan landscape, occupying the position of the observer, explorer of the city, transforming the experience of life and creativity. Prose by P. Volvach also clearly marked as autobiography, but traditionally autobiographical to be impossible, they combine elements of urban, autobiographical novels, memoirs, allowing us to qualify them as landscape autobiography that belongs to the philosophical metagenre.