On the Problem of Nietzseanism in Polish and Ukrainian Modernism. Wacław Berent and Lesia Ukrainka

Abstract

The article explores the mechanisms of adaptation and reinterpretation of Nietzscheanism in the context of the critique of decadence, l’art pour l’art, and aestheticism in the literary practices of Wacław Berent and Lesia Ukrainka. It traces how the Polish and Ukrainian modernists developed controversial intentions, disagreement, and polemics with the widespread fin-de-siècle sentiments of decadence, pessimism, despair, and the absolutization of beauty as a category of philosophical aesthetics almost simultaneously. The article emphasizes that in W. Berent’s work, the Nietzschean discourse is primarily embodied in novelistic prose, while in Lesia Ukrainka’s case, new ideas are adapted across various genres, in the word as such. It concludes that the philosophical concepts of F. Nietzsche were synchronously transposed into the texts of both authors. The article also examines similarities and differences in their treatment of the issues of will and unfreedom, the role of the artist and art, stylistic distinctiveness, and the aesthetic value of modernism. Finally, it outlines prospects for further research into the Polish-Ukrainian literary discourse at the turn of the century through the lens of cultural and cross-border transfers.