„Tajemne przejścia, przez które wędruje ludzkie przeznaczenie”: dyskurs losu w prozie Mychajła Jackowa

Abstract

The article examines the essence and characteristics of the discourse of fate in the literary and ideological quest of the Ukrainian modernist writer Mykhailo Yatskiv (1873–1961), based on the material of his prose (mostly short stories) 1899–1919. In Yatskiv’s prose, the researcher distinguishes works with symbolic-mythological depiction (in particular with personified images of Fate and the fateful plot) and the discourse of fate in neorealistic works (often with separate mythological elements). The writer focuses predominantly on the mysteries of individual human destiny, with social prophecies occurring much less frequently. In Yatskiv’s short stories, we find the topoi of a prophetic dream, predictions of fate, the motif of fate as atonement, and figurative details that fulfill the artistic function of harbingers of future tragedy. The characters in the story “The Fires Are Burning” (1902) have thoughts of a mystical punishment of the individual for his own sins and of the sins of ancestors weighing on the character, behavior, and destiny of descendants. In this story Yatskiv tests the main lexemes conveying the semantics of fate: “доля” (‘share’), “судьба” (‘fate’), “талан” (‘luck’), “льос” (German and Polish: ‘los’) and „льотерія” (‘lottery’). From their use in the story, we can conclude that the writer distinguishes the meanings of these words and uses them differentially to give the desired meaning whether to the author’s narrative and commentary, or to the reflection or colloquial statement of the character. Yatskiv resuscitates ancient and other pagan notions of fate and, in an artistic and conventional, mostly symbolic and mythological form, brings his confused message to the reader: human destiny does not depend or depends little on the individual, and is shaped by external forces – less social and more metaphysical, acting now purposefully, ironically, now completely incomprehensibly or even accidentally, but mostly not in favor of the individual. Yatskiv’s prose is dominated by complaints of a “hard” or mythologically unfavorable fate, on which one feels dependent and on which one mostly cannot have an influence. During the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917–1918, Yatskiv created short stories, imbued with faith in the revival of the Ukrainian state. The reassuring atmosphere of the revolutionary uprising inspired his historical optimism. His authorial discourse of destiny switched from a personal perspective to a social one.