Oleksandr Konysky – translator of Eliza Orzeszkowa’s small prose: how in Ukrainian literary criticism the authorship over the Polish writer’s work was attributed to O. Konysky

Abstract

The aim is to characterize the translations of E. Orzeszkowa’s small prose by O. Konysky, to determine the conditions for their appearance on the front pages of Ukrainian journals, to prove that the authorship of one of the novels by the Polish writer is mistakenly attributed to Ukrainian writer in Ukrainian literary criticism of the second half of the 20th – begining of the 21st century. Methodology. In the process of the study the following methods were applied: historical and literary, biographical, typological and contextual. Results. The article emphasized that O. Konysky, being one of the most active adherents of the national idea of the second half of the 19th century, lobbied the interests of the people, the educational and cultural revival of the divided country, the territorial, mental and ideological reunification of the Ukrainians of Halychyna and Naddnipryanshchyna (Dnieper Ukraine). He directly influenced the formation of cultural, aesthetic and ideological foundations, which contributed to the development of Ukrainian education, science and literature. O. Konysky considered the establishment of the national language to be one of the ways of nation-building, so his fiction and translations of works from Russian and Polish had not only aesthetic but also Ukrainian-centric goals. Scientific novelty. It has been determined that one of E. Orzeszkowa’s novels, translated by O. Konysky, is mistakenly described in contemporary Ukrainian literary criticism not as a translation, but as a work by O. Konysky. Practical significance. The main results of the study can be used in further study of Polish and Ukrainian literary processes of the late 19th – early 20th centuries, as well as in the study of literary and translation activities of O. Konysky.