Information on the thesis

Thesis presents a complex research of artistic interpretation of emigration in
I. Franko’s literary works for the first time in Ukrainian literary studies. The
phenomenon of I. Franko’s «emigrational» text is interpreted as a personal multi-
structural supertext unity consisted of common according to semantics and shape
literary works that reveal emigration subject matter and are joined by the central space
topoi of motherland and outland interpreted in a sacral register of characters’
antithesis of paradise and hell. The author outlines writer’s literary works corpus
devoted to the issue of emigration from Halychyna at the end of the XIX – beginning
the XX centuries (list of early poetries, poem «Shvindelesa Parkhenblita vandrivka z
sela Derykhlopy do Ameryky i nazad», story «Dovbaniuk», short novel «Dlia
domashnoho ohnyshcha», comedy «Maister Chyrniak», drama «Do Brazylii», story
«Panshchyznianyj khlib», poetic cyclus «Do Brazylii», novel «Perekhresni stezhky»,
short stories «Batkivshchyna», «Soichyne krylo»). The central plot motives,
characters-topoi forming its structural base are identified. The part of literary works is
supplemented by the writer’s publicistic writings in 1891–1897, epistolary and
memoiristics (about I. Franko’s intensions to emigrate and his participation in
emigrational movement). Emigrants’ folklore of those times is an important
generative factor of the cultural context.
I. Franko’s literary works about the emigration are analyzed basing on three
theoretical and methodological suggestions – poetic manner, rhetoric, and
interpretation. The central position belongs to the rhetorical analysis based on
determination of communicative strategies of artistic language on the level of its
correlation to writer’s intension and reader’s perception. Specific features of
emigrational subject matter representation are compared in the core subtexts (cyclus
«Do Brazylii») and peripheral subtexts. I. Franko’s literary works corpus about the
emigration is considered as a constituent of «emigrational» text of Ukrainian literature
at the end of the XIX – beginning the XX centuries constructed according to the
principle of traditional narrative that gets closer to folk matrix. I. Franko creates
original interpretation of emigration with combined tradition and innovation.
Key words: I. Franko’s «emigrational» text, supertext, poetic manner, neo-
rhetoric, role-based lyrics, rhetorical strategy, author’s intension, literary memory,
interpretation, artistic code, motive repertoire, motherland topos, emigrants’ folklore.