Naturalism in the discourse of European and Ukrainian literary process

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Department of Philology and Translation Ivano-Frankivsk National Technical University of Oil and Gas

Naturalism in the discourse of european and ukrainian literary process

Kosylo N.V., Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor, Associate Professor

Kovalchuk O.Ya., Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor, Associate Professor

Summary

Undoubtedly, naturalism in European countries owes a lot to the French influence, but historical circumstances and national traditions played a major role in its formation. The article draws attention to various national variants of this movement. After all, the concept of naturalism was born not only on the basis of the philosophy of positivism prevailing in France, but also on the basis of pan-European cultural development. Therefore, foreign literary influences and mutual influences on the development of the creative method of naturalist writers (in particular, Ukrainian) should be sought outside of French literature.

Unlike some European countries, where naturalism replaced the traditions of realism in an evolutionary way, the appearance of naturalism in Poland was somewhat artificial. If we talk about the general reception of Zola's artistic achievements in Polish criticism, it should be admitted that it was more negative than positive. I. Franko was one of the first to give a professional assessment of E. Zola's works, different from the conclusions of certain Polish and Ukrainian literary experts.

In German literature, naturalism manifested itself in the second half of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s. Its appearance was associated with French influence, but it was not a simple imitation or borrowing. In contrast to France, where naturalism was based on the conquest of realism in the middle of the century, in Germany naturalism was not preceded by a long realistic stage of its development, and the romantic traditions in literature proved to be more stable.

For the entire Ukrainian “reading public” of that time, as well as for Franko himself, the revolutionary nature of naturalistic literature consisted in the extraordinary plausibility of depicting the life of society with all its contradictions. Actually, these interconnected and mutually determined tendencies of naturalism became the leading stimulus for its positive reception in the literatures of European countries.

Such principles of naturalistic doctrine as documentaryism, factualism, journalisticism and descriptiveness, which were characteristic of European naturalists, found their place in Ukrainian literature as well. One of the common features for Ukraine, Poland, as well as England is the absence of a naturalistic school, which, for example, was established in French and German literature.

Key words: naturalism, naturalistic doctrine, philosophy of positivism, mutual influences, social bottom.

Анотація

Безсумнівно, натуралізм у європейських країнах багато чим зобов'язаний французькому впливу, однак у його формуванні велику роль відіграли історичні обставини та національні традиції. У статті звернено увагу на різні національні варіанти цього напряму. Адже концепція натуралізму не зародилася на основі лише пануючої у Франції філософії позитивізму, але й на ґрунті загальноєвропейського культурного розвитку. Тому зовнішньолітературні впливи та взаємовпливи на вироблення творчого методу письменників-натуралістів (зокрема українських) мід шукати і за межами французької літератури.

На відміну від деяких європейських країн, де натуралізм прийшов на зміну традиціям реалізму еволюційним шляхом, у Польщі поява натуралізму мала дещо штучний характер. Якщо говорити про загальну рецепцію художніх здобутків Золя у польській критиці, то слід визнати, що вона радше була негативною, ніж позитивною. І. Франко одним із перших дав фахову оцінку творчості Е. Золя, відмінну від висновків окремих польських та українських літературознавців.

У німецькій літературі натуралізм проявив себе в другій половині 80-х - на початку 90-х рр. Поява його була пов'язана з французьким впливом, але це не було простим наслідуванням чи запозиченням. На відміну від Франції, де натуралізм спирався на завоювання реалізму середини століття, в Німеччині натуралізмові не передувала тривала реалістична стадія розвитку, а романтичні традиції в літературі виявилися більш стійкими.

Для всієї “читаючої публіки” того часу в Україні, як і для самого Франка, революційність натуралістичної літератури полягала у надзвичайній правдоподібності змалювання життя суспільства з усіма його суперечностями. Власне ці взаємопов'язані та взаємозумовлені між собою тенденції натуралізму стали провідним стимулом його позитивної рецепції у літературах країн Європи.

Такі принципи натуралістичної доктрини, як документалізм, фактографізм, публіцистичність і нарисовість, що були притаманні для європейських натуралістів, віднайшли своє місце і в українській літературі. Однією зі спільних рис для України, Польщі, а також Англії є відсутність натуралістичної школи, яка, для прикладу, сформувалася у французькій та німецькій літературах.

Ключові слова: натуралізм, натуралістична доктрина, філософія позитивізму, взаємовпливи, суспільне дно.

Problem statement. The problem of naturalism is among the least studied branches in our science. For a long time, literary criticism did not pay attention to the existence of naturalistic tendencies in the Ukrainian literature, and the few works that dealt with this topic were ideologically biased and far from objective. In the late 19th - early 20th centuries, literary critics perceived naturalism as ultra-realistic, overly radical movement compared to the traditional Ukrainian literature. An even bigger problem is the lack of scientific studies of the relationships between European naturalist writers and domestic representatives of this literary movement, in particular Ivan Franko [1, p. 56].

Some critics define naturalism as a set of “bad features” and techniques that harm art. However, naturalism is not a deviation in the historical development of realism; it is rather a natural, integral, independent and self-sufficient phenomenon of the literary process. The objectiveness of its existence is rooted in the fact that it was simultaneously developing in various national literatures in the second half of the 19th century.

Analysis of recent research and publications. Numerous literary studies by V. Matviishyn, M. Tkachuk, R. Holod, D. Nalyvaiko, M. Tkachuk, M. Kebalo, N. Venhrynovych, N. Yatskiv and other researchers, which were published in the post-Soviet period, are devoted to the essence of this literary phenomenon, its role and significance in the history of the Ukrainian and world literary process. They reveal certain peculiarities and significance of the poetics of naturalism in its comparison with the poetics of other literary movements. The researches focused on the study of naturalism's genetic-typological nature as an independent unit of the literary process and its harmonious unity of ideological, philosophical, and poetical elements that make it possible to delineate the above-mentioned phenomenon into a literary movement, whose constitutive dominants are scientism, objectivity, a monistic worldview, and the principle of life resemblance [2]. These critical works trace the evolution of naturalism through contact-genetic relationships with its fundamental doctrine, formulated by Zola in his Le Roman experimental, and analyze typological coincidences and differences in the transformation of the movement in various national literatures

Objective. The objective of this research is to determine the general patterns of formation and development, as well as specific features of poetic systems of national variants and the European invariant of naturalism within the inter-literary process of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Main findings. Consideration of the problem of the presence of naturalistic tendencies in the European literature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries raises the question about common features in the development of such countries as France, Germany, England, Poland and Ukraine in that period. It is known that the last quarter of the 19th century is an era of dynamic social transformations caused by the rapid development of capitalism, an era of striking social conflicts and contradictions. Therefore, literature could not ignore new topics, new problems, new heroes. Some writers in European literature, whom we may call naturalists, did much to acquaint readers with the challenges of that period.

Naturalism belongs to epoch-making phenomena that evoke constant discussion, thereby attracting attention to the problem of the relationship between art and life as well as to the revaluation of ontological values. Recent investigations in Ukrainian literary criticism draw the problem of naturalism into the plane of the theoretical generalization of the genetic- typological paradigm of the international invariant of a literary movement, thus constructing a model of a common denominator based on the philosophical and aesthetic works of Emile Zola, offering 184 Kyiv-Mohyla Humanities Journal 5 (2018) a certain set of fundamental principles and constitutive dominants, whose presence or absence enables the identification of a particular phenomenon of the literary process as one related to naturalism [2].

Undoubtedly, naturalism in European countries and the USA owes a lot to French influence, but historical circumstances and national traditions played a major role in its formation. It will be appropriate to pay attention to various national invariants of this movement and find out whether we are talking about inter-literary influences or mutual influences. After all, the concept of naturalism originated not only on the basis of the French philosophy of positivism, but also on the positivism ground of pan-European cultural development. Therefore, foreign literary influences and mutual influences on the development of the creative method of naturalist writers (especially Ukrainian ones) should be sought outside of French literature. naturalist writer artistic

The question of the influence of literature on literature is quite complex and controversial. V Budnyi is convinced that “older literatures influence younger ones; more developed literatures influence less developed ones. Thus, ancient Greek literature influenced Roman one in ancient times, Italian literature influenced French literature in the 16th and 17th centuries, and French literature influenced Russian one from the end of the 18th century. But the participants of this process can change places” [3, p. 65].

The outstanding Slovak comparativist D. Diuryshyn considers the term “influence” as a purely auxiliary one and considers it unproductive and inadequate. In his opinion, this term in its basic meaning favors the one who influences and relegates the creative activity of the one who perceives or is influenced. So, taking such fact into account, it is impossible to systematically interpret the laws of the interliterary process, to trace the complex interweaving of connections in the process of the functioning of literature [4, p. 143]. Although the problem of influences still remains unsolved, the fact remains undeniable that literary domestic and international influences exist not only at the level of individual works, creative individuals, national literatures, but also stylistic trends, genre forms, entire literary eras.

R. Holod notes “When in England, France, Russia, naturalism came to literature through an evolutionary path as a result of a certain exhaustion of the ideological and aesthetic program of realism on the one hand and the absolutization of some of its conceptual provisions on the other, Poland rather belongs to the group of countries in which traditions of realistic art were not so strong, and therefore the introduction of the naturalistic experiment in their national literatures was not entirely organic, had a somewhat “borrowed” character, and in its meaning and consequences resembled a revolutionary leap” [5, p. 45].

For the first time, Zola's ideas began to be actively promoted in Poland on the pages of A. Hrushetskyi's magazine “Vendrovec” (1884-1887). However, the aesthetic program of the mentioned edition, which contained certain elements of the theory of the experimental novel, had some inaccuracies.

Being under the influence of Zola's naturalism, Dygasinski still produces his own original style of storytelling, which combines everyday detail with lyrical landscape sketches. The author's style, which is characterized by light humor, allows him to maintain a sense of proportion even in the depiction of the most disgusting, repulsive phenomena. Most of the writer's novels and short stories are about “weak” people who enjoy the author's unchanging sympathy, and “strong”, morally indecipherable and beastly predatory aggressors. Scientists believe that “these works are a kind of attempt to rely on the scientific principles of Darwinism and Spencer's sociological theory in the artistic interpretation of ugly social relations between people”.

Ivan Franko played a significant role in the popularization of naturalistic trends in Poland. In addition to the Polish language, which the writer treated with great respect and in which he wrote a number of literary works, the Ukrainian artist knew another fourteen languages. But being under arrest for his social activities, he asked to bring him the works of Emile Zola translated into Polish language. In contrast to Ukraine, where the works of the outstanding French novelist were not too well known, “Polish literature, with which I. Franko fruitfully collaborated, closely followed the Western European literary process, striving to introduce its supporters to bright figures and their works as soon as possible. Therefore, the appearance in Poland of another work of a very popular author at that time was fully justified” [6, p. 351].

However, if we talk about the general reception of Zola's artistic achievements in Polish criticism, it should be admitted that it was more negative than positive (the work of the French writer was characterized as cynical and immoral). I. Franko singled out only one relatively loyal characteristic of E. Zola's works (it belonged to the Polish writer Jozef Kraszewski (1812-1887)). “It is a more moral thing to investigate the causes of decline, to look for sparks of divine fire, of human feeling, even in beings who have fallen to the lowest point, than to turn away with disdain from everything that was previously recognized as condemned and worthless” [7, p. 101], this was Franko's reaction to the conservatism of most Polish and Ukrainian literary critics.

Another reason for the negative reception of Zolaism in Poland was a sharp criticism of the work of the French writer by authoritative Henryk Sienkiewicz. Such assessment, of course, did not favor the popularization of translations of Emile Zola's works in this country. The statements of the Polish antagonist of Zolaism are often contradictory: at first, H. Sienkiewicz characterizes the French naturalist as a great, talented, unusual and very original person, later he claims that if he “were French, he would consider Zola's talent a national misfortune and would be happy that his time passes and even his closest students leave the writer, who is increasingly lonely” [8, p. 219-221].

In the article about Ukrainian-Polish literary relations, V Matvyyshyn emphasizes that “I. Franko was one of the first in Polish (as well as in Ukrainian) criticism to give a professional assessment of E. Zola's works, different from the conclusions of some Polish and Ukrainian literary critics, and thus, to a certain extent, contributed to his popularity in Poland. Defending the creative heritage of E. Zola from unjust attacks, I. Franko always argued the artistic-ethical and social-political value of his works, because he knew them perfectly, unlike other critics” [6, p. 354].

In German literature, naturalism manifested itself in the second half of the 80s - at the beginning of the 90s. Its appearance was due to French influence, but it was not a simple imitation or borrowing. In contrast to France, where naturalism was based on the conquest of realism in the middle of the century, in Germany naturalism was not preceded by a long realistic stage of development, and the romantic traditions in literature proved to be more stable. The similar situation was in Ukrainian literature.

Demanding strict truth and scientific plausibility of the content, German naturalists deepened the social analysis in their works and significantly expanded the range in the depiction of reality. Due to the relevant national and historical reasons, naturalism in Germany played to a certain extent the role of realism that dominated in other European literatures of that time. Therefore, researchers rightly claimed that “Conrad's articles and Hart's works promoted not so much naturalistic theories as the principles of realism”.

Naturalism had the same premise as realism, however, as opposed to realist writers who merely described the world, naturalist writers focused on ugly side of social norms. Naturalist writers examined life as scientists examine nature; at the same time, their approach to life was pessimistic, they often depicted the process of destruction or degradation of society and human nature. In addition, they often used nature as a projection of social development, through symbolic depiction of nature phenomenon; they tried (as well as naturalists) inspire society for positive changes. Literature has always been one of the major means to express thought and believes; thus, it is no wonder that it changes together with history and social development [9].

In various German literary associations, the understanding of naturalism had its own characteristics. Reprimanding Zola for discarding the “ideal” from literature, the Hart brothers (representatives of the Berlin school of naturalism) contrasted the French variant with “spiritualized naturalism”. They opposed the transformation of a novel into a protocol of scientific research, and the transformation of a writer into a simple recorder of facts, noting that naturalism, which is only perceived as copying reality, kills art [10, p. 233-269].

Of particular interest is the association of “sequential naturalists”, which emerged in the 1990s, and is considered as the embodiment of the general trend of development of the whole naturalism. Its main representatives were the poet A. Golts and the playwright I. Shlaf, the supporters of extreme naturalism, which is characterized by rigid determinism, very precise fixation of the object, complete impersonality, plotlessness, formlessness, rejection of differentiation between essential and accidental. “Sequential naturalists” resolutely rejected the literary language, insisting that works of art should be written in common, everyday language, preserving vulgarisms, provincialisms, and all kinds of grammatical and stylistic distortions.

It should be mentioned that in Germany, naturalism, albeit for a short time, covered the entire literature. Almost all prominent German writers of that time were influenced by it. It is important that while French naturalism is inextricably linked with the name of the talented novelist Zola, and in England, Poland and Ukraine it manifested itself mainly in the epic genres of the novel, short story, and essay - in Germany naturalism reached its heights primarily in poetry and drama.

The leading role of drama in the literature of German naturalism was manifested in 1889, when Gerhart Hauptmann appeared on the theater stage. The main features of naturalistic prose developed in German art in the late 1980s and early 1990s lead to the form of drama: the complete removal of the author's figure from the depicted piece of life, the disintegration of the epic action into separate episodes, excessive attention to dialogues, which are almost entirely replace all other ways of expressing a person's inner world. For naturalists, drama is the least conventional genre [10, p. 257]. The peculiarity of the conflict and the passivity of the hero are the main features of naturalistic drama. Naturalism creates a “drama of state” by rejecting action as the leading element of the drama, and replacing it with changes in state, sometimes insignificant ones. The conflict in the naturalistic drama is not the struggle of opposite forces, but the complete and direct determinism of the hero by the surrounding circumstances, the environment, natural-scientific laws.

The young playwright is acutely concerned about social problems, he admires Kretzer's social novels and Ibsen's drama. The play “The Weavers” (1893) aroused the greatest interest. It is a historical drama depicting the revolt of the Silesian weavers (this event in German history was particularly close to Hauptmann, as his grandfather was a participant in those events). According to Admoni, the artistic weakness of the drama is in the absence of problems with eternal values at the basis of its plot, instead, naturalistic and simplified sociological trends have taken their place [10, p. 257].

For the entire Ukrainian “reading public” of that time, as well as for Franko himself, the revolutionary nature of naturalistic literature consisted in the extraordinary plausibility of depicting the life of society with all its contradictions. In particular, H. Hauptman's drama “The Weavers”, according to the Ukrainian writer, “is revolutionary only because it presents a terribly faithful, bright and microscopically detailed picture of one moment in the life of a whole mass of people, their exploitation, their suffering, their poor joys, the needy hopes and their bottomless arrogance” [11, p. 144]. Actually, these interconnected and mutually determined tendencies of naturalism became the leading stimulus for its positive reception in the literatures of European countries.

Famous scholar L. Rudnytskyi noticed the typological kinship of naturalism of the poem “Master's Jokes” (1887) by I. Franko with “The Weavers” (1892) by H. Hauptman. According to the scientist, this poem is “Franko's own adaptation of the very fundamental principles of German naturalism”: it is a reproduction of the environment as one of the important determining factors of naturalism; this is not an image of individuals (except for the main one, they don't even have names), but of types, which is also characteristic of naturalism; this is a naturalistic demand for the individualization of the hero's language (“naturalists insisted that each hero should speak his own language in a natural rhythm according to his personality”) [12, p. 805]. L. Rudnytskyi's opinion that Franko “looks at life in the village with the audio and visual accuracy of a naturalist and presents it to us in all aspects” is rather interesting. At the same time, the literary critic believes that Franko “was not a naturalist in the strict sense of the word”, although he was very in tune with contemporary artistic trends in German literature and used “some of the aesthetic principles developed by German naturalists” [12, p. 805].

In the mid-1990s, decadent movement was rapidly developing in German literature, and writers' loss of interest to social problems was evident. The influence of Zola and Ibsen was replaced by admiration for Maeterlinck, French symbolists, and various schools of impressionism. Many figures of naturalism fall under the influence of new trends. Hauptmann was also gradually moving away from naturalism. Hauptmann's complete departure from the naturalistic tradition was evidenced by the drama “The Sunken Bell” (1891). A drama that proclaims the victory of spirit over matter and the victory of dreams over reality cannot be called naturalistic. Hauptmann's entire subsequent work is far from naturalism, but we should not forget that the beginning of the playwright's creative path falls on the era of naturalism's heyday in Germany. Hauptmann started out as a naturalist, but found himself only after overcoming it.

Researchers are unanimous in their opinion that naturalism in German literature is an important and fruitful stage. Naturalistic impulses and traditions of this direction are clearly felt in the sources of creativity of almost all the most outstanding German writers of the first half of the 20th century, which are often very far from naturalism, and sometimes even polar to it [10, p. 233].

Conclusion and prospects for further research. As we can see, the ideas of E. Zola enjoyed considerable authority in world literature, and yet they underwent certain modification and adaptation in the context of the cultural and historical environment of different countries. Even more, national versions of naturalistic art made their original amendments in the formation of an international invariant of the theoretical model of naturalism. Neither for Ukraine, nor for Poland or England, naturalism as a stage of literary development, was not as significant as it was for Germany. Some critics welcomed naturalism as a method of combating the tendency of literature, for others it was an occasion to promote the social novel as a novel of a new type. But both of them criticized its physiological task, which leads to deindividualization and depsychologization of the individual.

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