Повесть Т. Г. Шевченко «Музыкант»: моделирование пространства эстетического наслаждения

Abstract

Taras Shevchenko’s “The musician” is a kind of narrative about the personality, destiny and sphere of "aesthetic activity" of an artist, a man of art in the broad sense of the word, established and confirmed in the literature of the first half of the 19th century. A special aesthetic space into which the character is placed is being modeled in the text. This is a garden, park and idyllic space, which is contrasted to the artificial landlord’s estate and “unsightly” Petersburg regulated with social and role boundaries. These two lines of narrative exist in constant confrontation, embodying the ideal (sphere of art), and the real (bare physiology). The fate of the character of the story unfolds against the background of the farmstead idyll and inhospitable Petersburg. There is an autobiographical context in the story, which is palpable both in individual details and in depicting of musician’s life. Special attention should be paid to “amalgam” as one of Shevchenko's prose qualities. It involves the syncretism of the features of several literary currents within the same work. This quality is quite organic for Ukrainian literature of the first half of the 19th century and reflects the specificity of its artistry. The idea of several Ukrainian literary scholars about the original forms of Biedermeier's aesthetics in the first half of the 19th century becomes clear. It is amalgam exactly as an organic mix of different aesthetics determines this feature. The fate of an artist can be traced not only in the social and historical context, but also in relation to the aesthetic movement and various forms of art.