The Department of Polish Studies of the Institute of Philology of the Kyiv Taras Shevchenko National University, in cooperation with the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine since 1999 has published a collection of scientific papers “Polish Studies of Kyiv”. The collection highlights current problems of modern Polonistic literature and linguistics in a wide Slavic context with primary attention to Polish-Ukrainian literary contacts, borderline phenomena in language, literature and culture, problems of ethnolinguistics, cultural linguistics, grammar and lexicology of Polish and other Slavic languages, methodical issues of modern Ukrainian Polonistics.
Кафедра полоністики Інституту філології Київського національного університету імені Тараса Шевченка
ON THE POETRY OF ANTONI MALCZEWSKI AND JULIUSZ SŁOWACKI “FROM THE NIGHT DUMAS OF THE UKRAINIAN STEPPES AND RAVINES”
Antoni Malczewski, the author of the first poetic tale Maria, considered by many scholars to be an unparalleled masterpiece, is often regarded as the most prominent representative of the so-called “Ukrainian school” of Polish poetry. He was born either in the village of Knyahynyn in Volhynia or in Warsaw, and studied at the Kremenets Lyceum. Juliusz Słowacki, a great Polish Romantic poet, born sixteen years later in Kremenets and also educated at the same renowned institution, most likely read Malczewski’s Ukrainian poetic tale Maria, which may have influenced his own literary creativity. In his youth, during prayer in the Catholic church, he asked God not for earthly goods but for recognition after death. Both Malczewski and, years later, Słowacki shared the fate of travellers far from their homeland. The young Antoni experienced military service, romantic intrigues –sometimes leading nearly to duels – episodes in Warsaw salons, a European journey “in pursuit of a lady of the heart”, and even an ascent of Mont Blanc. The last two years of his life were marked by physical and spiritual suffering. Withdrawn from society, he lived in Warsaw with his extramarital partner Zofia, working on his poetic tale Maria (1825). It is unlikely that the appearance of Słowacki’s work Dumka ukraińska in 1826, in which he positioned himself as a follower of the “Ukrainian school”, was accidental. He was almost certainly acquainted with Maria. Shortly afterwards, his Song of a Cossack Girl and other works appeared. Among Słowacki’s early writings with Ukrainian themes is also the poem Żmija, described by the author as a “verse tale in six songs based on Ukrainian legends.” For a contemporary reader, this text may seem unexpected. Its protagonist, a Zaporizhian hetman who led Cossacks into campaigns, is depicted as cruel and treacherous, even toward his own troops. Justice ultimately triumphs, and a tragic end befalls him. This image may surprise the modern Ukrainian reader, for whom Cossack history represents integrity and patriotism. While Cossack leaders often fought for power, they did not turn against their people. Thus, the poem is perceived as a legend-allegory. The gloomy image of the hetman was created by the poet’s vivid imagination, though figures with such traits may have existed in certain historical contexts. Słowacki’s remarkable intuition allowed him to sense this. Therefore, the analysis should also focus on how these eminent poets depicted the shared struggles of Cossacks and Polish warriors against invaders, as well as the wild steppe, Cossacks, and the dramatic events of their common history.
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ANTONI MALCZEWSKI AND ZENON FISZ: LIFE AND CREATIVE INTERSECTIONS
The article examines the life and work of representatives of the Ukrainian school in Polish literature – poet Antoni Malczewski and prose writer Zenon Fisz (Tadeusz Padalica) in a comparative aspect. First of all, it deals with the characteristic features present in the biography of both artists: the disorder of their personal lives, oblivion after death as it is unknown where their graves are. The lives of both artists are closely connected with Ukraine: Antoni – with Volhynia, Zenon – with the Dnipro region. It is this factor that determined the writers’ interest in Ukrainian topics. Considerable attention is paid to the poem “Maria” with its documentary basis, which brought Malczewski recognition only after the author’s death. And the influence of the poem on the work of Zenon Fisz, which is manifested in the theme, composition, and figurative system, is naturally investigated. In the story “Taras’ Night” lines from “Maria” are used as epigraphs to the work. In another work (“Pamiętnik legitymuącego się szlachcica”), Malczewski’s Maria is a female ideal, a standard. But perhaps the most points of intersection are in modeling the image of the cossack Mamai (the symbolic meaning of this character is decoded). Malczewski chose the image of Mamai not by chance. As it is known, the cossack Mamai is one of the most famous heroes of Ukrainian folklore. He is most often depicted on picturesque canvases of the 17th –18th centuries, in the form of a crested cossack bandura player (the bandura is a symbol of the singing soul of the people): in a zhupani, blue harem pants, sapyan boots, in a pose with crossed legs. Nearby are indispensable attributes: a faithful companion horse – a symbol of will, an oak – a symbol of power, a weapon (spear, saber, rifle) – readiness for battle, a pipe – loneliness, cossack damask and a glass, which were placed in the grave, reminded of the transience of life and the fate of a cossack. Cossack Mamai – a symbol of invincibility; greatness of spirit and optimism of a Ukrainian; the singing soul of the people; the transience of life; courage. So, the brave gymnasium student Antoni, or “Antosko”, as he was often called, posed before the artist in the image of the cossack Mamai, with a kobza in his hands, as evidenced by a lithograph by an unknown author. In the works of Z. Fisz, Mamai is one of the most important characters in the system of artistic images, the theme of Haidamachchyna is associated with him (the story “Zosia Żytkiewiczówna”). However, the semantics of this image differs from its interpretation in Ukrainian folklore. The article briefly examines the influence of Ukrainian writer G. Kvitka-Osnovianenko on Z. Fisz’s work.
SOCIAL-METAPHYSICAL VERSION OF HUMAN FATE IN THE ANTONI MALCZEWSKI’S POEM “MARIA”
The discourse of fate in the lyric-epic poem “Maria” (1825) by Polish Romantic poet Antoni Malczewski is analyzed. The work has two problem-thematic planes: 1) regional Ukrainian-Polish (geographical-cultural-ethnic), which fits into the framework of geopoetics, and 2) existential-metaphysical. In addition, parallel to the development of a dual plot, in which two lines are intertwined – socio-historical (repelling Tatar raids) and loving and familial – there are interspersions of accompanying conceptual and figurative semantics, one part of which (characteristic romantic imagery, topics typical of the “Ukrainian school” in Polish romanticism) creates a cultural and historical flavor, and the other (existential and psychological concepts) sets the tone for an existential-anthropological, metaphysical worldview. In this suggestion, the concept of “los” occupies a dominant position, manifested in a synonymous series of words: “los”, “dola”, “Fortuna”. The concept sphere of “los” also includes vocabulary for describing the forces that determine fate, their actions and judgments, ambivalent feelings, and human emotional reactions to the vicissitudes of fate. Archetypal dichotomies play an essential role in the poem: Earth/Sky, Society/Transcendent God, Life/Death, Fate/Misfortune, Light/Darkness, Day/Night, Virtue/Deception, Happiness/Unhappiness. The poem contains foreboding of the main characters (Wacław, Maria, and her father) and prophetic signs, but there are no articulated prophecies – with the exception of allegorical allusive predictions in the pseudo-carnival song of masks, which performs a symbolic and metaphorical prophetic function. The narrator-poet focuses on the psychology of the characters, their experiences, and their perceptions of the fatal twists of fate that occur for unknown reasons. Only in passing does the work raise the question of what metaphysical force influences human destiny. The insertion into the plot of a seemingly entertaining and playful “masquerade” with songs and dance, shifted in relation to the ritual calendar (in summer, not in the winter carnival), introduces an essential element of pseudo-carnivalization into the poem. A typological similarity in the depiction of evil and the interpretation of fate can also be traced in the poem “Maria” and in the works of Ukrainian “black romanticism” – the ballads “The Girl under a Spel”, “The Poplar”, “The Drowned Maiden”, and the poems “The Witch”, “The Princess”, “The Sexton’s Daughter” by T. Shevchenko, and the Russian-language story “The Fire Serpent” by P. Kulish. While A. Malczewski expressed the idea of the causelessness of tragic metaphysical doom, P. Kulish artistically expressed the motif of heavenly punishment for sinful love. The early Romantic poem “Maria” is a precursor not only to the further development of “black Romanticism,” but also to similar manifestations in modernism (the drama “Little Eyolf” by H. Ibsen, the surrealistic American series “Twin Peaks”).
“Ukrainian school” in Polish Romanticism
THE IMAGOLOGICAL CONTEXTS OF ANTONI MALCZEWSKIʼS “MARIA”
This work provides a descriptive and comparative analysis of the images of Cossacks and Tatars in Antoni Malczewski’s poem “Maria”, examined within the context of imagology and inter-ethnic relations. The poem delineates a clear dichotomy between Good, embodied by the Poles and Cossacks, and Evil, represented by the Tatars. The image of the Cossack is portrayed as multifaceted and complex: he is a harmonious blend of “wildness” and “obedience”, lives in unity with nature, and serves as a loyal messenger, a reliable guide, and a brave warrior. He functions as an “intermediate link” between “civilization” (the Poles) and “barbarism.” In contrast, the Tatars are depicted as a faceless, cruel, and treacherous horde, symbolizing absolute evil, chaos, and a destructive force of nature. This contrast is further deepened by the analysis of their combat tactics: the noble and direct fighting style of the Poles is set against the cunning maneuvers and encirclement tactics of the Tatars. Thus, in the poem, the Cossacks emerge as allies of civilization in its struggle against barbarism.
MARIA BY ANTONI MALCZEWSKI – A POLISH NOVEL / A UKRAINIAN NOVEL
The article provides an overview of the interpretive possibilities hidden within the subititle “Ukrainian novel” used by Antoni Malczewski for his poem “Maria”. By tracing the shifting semantic field of the category “Ukrainianness” in 19th-century Polish culture, I attempt to recreate the spectrum of possible readings of the poem and also to demonstrate the consequences of these interpretative choices. The article provides arguments for reading the titular protagonist of Malczewski’s poem within the context of Ukrainian culture. In his final work “Blizzard in the Steppes” (1862), Grabowski revisits the motif of conflict between a Polish master and his Ukrainian subjects, centering the narrative on Marusia, a beautiful Ukrainian girl who becomes the symbolic heart of the story. In many respects, Marusia echoes Malczewski’s Maria: her name, beauty, and spiritual sensitivity directly recall the earlier heroine. Like Maria, she embodies moral fragility and transcendence, and her death signifies the collapse of hope for love and community. While Marusia’s Ukrainian identity is explicit, Maria’s origins remain ambiguous. Yet the heroine’s psychological and physical type deviates from the Polish noble stereotype, and scenes such as the funeral in the Orthodox church suggest an underlying Ukrainian context. This ambivalence mirrors broader representations of women in mid-nineteenth-century Polish literature set in Ukraine – figures caught between Polish lineage and Ukrainian roots, as in Goszczyński’s Orlika or Słowacki’s “Silver Dream of Salomea”. The hypothesis that Maria might share kinship with Ukrainian folk heroines – Marusias of dumky, including the legendary poet Marusia Czuraj – opens new interpretive perspectives. Malczewski, raised in Volhynia, could have drawn inspiration from such archetypes. Through this lens, “Maria. A Ukrainian Tale” reveals a hidden “Ukrainiannes”, inscribed in the symbolic tension between Polish and Ukrainian cultural worlds. The poem’s conclusion with images of Orthodox domes gleaming on the horizon and whispered prayers of Ukrainian women frames the tragedy within Eastern Christian eschatology. Thus, the narrative’s despair is counterbalanced by the hope of transcendence, transforming Maria into an allegory of cultural and spiritual borderlands, where love, death, and redemption intertwine.
FOLK BELIEFS OF THE SLAVS IN SELECTED TEXTS OF THE UKRAINIAN SCHOOL: THEOLOGICAL DUALISM IN MARIA
У статті представлено аналіз теологічного дуалізму Бога й Диявола як основи слов’янських легенд, переказів і оповідей. Автор спирається на твердження Михайла Драгоманова про те, що саме цей дуалізм становить критерій слов’янського міфу. Підкреслюється його зороастрійське походження, на що вказували у своїх працях Ришард Томіцький та Мірча Еліаде. Доведено, що праслов’янський теологічний дуалізм становить міфічну основу світу, відтвореного Антонієм Мальчевським у поемі «Марія». Автор констатує, що теологічний дуалізм, який, зокрема, Драгоманов визначав як ознаку слов’янського міфу, у цій поетичній повісті зумовлює також дуалізм космологічний і антропологічний. У степу – theatrum mundi – втілюється боротьба радикально протилежних (бінарних) начал Світла і Темряви, Добра і Зла, Життя і Смерті, результатом якої є поглинання Світла, Добра, Життя Темрявою, Злом, Смертю. У статті доводиться, що євангельська сотеріологія у візійному творі Мальчевського зазнає інверсії під впливом реліктової народності, тобто символіка спасіння перетворюється на символіку загибелі всього земного. Водночас автор вбачає у творі Мальчевського надію – у проєкційній релігійності «Марії» та в прагненні визволення з пенітенціарного порядку степу – світу – космосу, з туги за «іншою землею, під іншим небом».
The article examines the Internet meme as a pragmalinguistic and multimodal phenomenon that combines verbal, visual, and intertextual elements. Integrating semiotic resources such as the mode, media, and meaning potential of memes to help readers understand the background knowledge about memes. Memes function as speech acts. While it is possible that all types of memes can be considered speech acts, some types of memes are more accessible to construction than others and are also used more frequently. It demonstrates that memes are grounded in precedent phenomena—names, expressions, events, and cultural images—that acquire satirical, ironic, or mobilizing meanings in new contexts. During the war in Ukraine, memes are used deeply and deeply as a way of emotional support, relieving anxiety and building resilience (“emotional therapy”). In these cases, word → associative → meme: language creates a “semantic explosion”, which, through media repetition and variability, is formed into a stable cultural sign. In this context, the active inclusion of the Polish media space in the orbit of Ukraine’s allies in the confrontation with Russia is an extremely important stage. In crisis contexts (war, pandemic), memes are transformed from entertainment content into a tool of collective mobilization. Based on Ukrainian and Polish media materials (e.g., Putler, Bavovna, Russian warship, go…, Denaturatow, Dziś kijek), the study shows that memes function as speech acts: the illocutionary phase is realized through satire, euphemization, or political commentary, while the perlocutionary phase lies in influencing public opinion and shaping collective identity. Special attention is given to the multimodal nature of memes, which enables the integration of text, images, and cultural allusions into a unified communicative act. The article also highlights the challenges of translation and transcultural adaptation, since memes may lose their illocutionary force when transferred across linguistic and cultural communities.
POLISH LITERARY LANGUAGE IN THE RUTHENIAN LANDS OF THE 16TH–17TH CENTURIES: THE CONCEPT OF A. MARTEL
The article analyses the state of the Polish literary language in the Ruthenian lands of the 16th–17th centuries and substantiates conclusions concerning the influence of Polish civilisation on Ukrainian linguistic consciousness of the period. The paper presents the concept of Antoine Martel – a polyglot Slavist and professor at the University of Lille – whose scholarly legacy significantly influenced the development of Slavic studies. At the same time, attention is given to Martel’s debatable thesis about the conscious withdrawal of educated Ukrainians of the Renaissance era from the creation and assimilation of their own literary language under the influence of aesthetically and functionally accomplished Polish literary models, particularly the texts of Jan Kochanowski. Martel’s ideas are examined within the framework of scholarly debates that acknowledge the erudition and academic competence of the French Slavist but also put forward a number of logical and analytical counterarguments. The article refers to the criteria by which world Slavists and Martel’s contemporaries assessed his scholarly work. Special emphasis is placed on the necessity of correlating linguistic and literary tendencies in cultural development with the sociocultural context of the epoch, on viewing linguistic influences as a nonlinear process that presupposes the dialogical nature of cultures, and on the need to analyse a wide and representative corpus of texts. Consequently, the complex issue of contacts among the literary languages of the Slavic nations gave rise to polemics among eminent scholars, in which concepts, methods of textual analysis, and historical-cultural arguments were articulated.
concepts of literary language development
METHODS OF ADAPTATION OF ADVERTISING SLOGANS OF INTERNATIONAL BRANDS: LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS IN THECONTEXT OF UKRAINE AND POLAND
The article examines the strategies of translating advertising slogans of international brands into Ukrainian and Polish, focusing on the methods of direct translation, adaptation, and revision. Advertising discourse is shown to be highly demanding for translators because it combines semantic, stylistic, and cultural aspects and must meet the expectations of specific target audiences. The study analyzes a range of slogans from globally recognized brands such as Nestlé, Red Bull, Bounty, LION cereals, and M&M’s. The comparison demonstrates how translation methods influence both the meaning and the persuasive impact of the slogans. Direct translation, while sometimes adequate, often fails to fully convey stylistic or cultural nuances. For example, the Polish version of the Bounty slogan “smak raju” is a literal rendering of the English “The Taste of Paradise”, whereas the Ukrainian adaptation «Bounty – райська насолода» shifts the focus from physical taste to emotional pleasure. Similarly, the Ukrainian Nestle slogan «Якість продуктів, якість життя!» emphasizes reliability and authority through the noun quality, while the Polish version “Jedz smacznie, żyj zdrowo” introduces imperatives, appealing to consumer action and everyday values. The method of revision illustrates more radical transformations. The English M&M’s slogan “Melts in Your Mouth, Not in Your Hands” stresses taste, texture, and cleanliness, but the Ukrainian «Відпадні шоколадні!» employs slang and added epithets, thus targeting a younger audience and creating a playful brand image. By contrast, the Polish version stays closer to the original, showing the use of adaptation. The findings confirm that translation strategies depend not only on linguistic differences between English, Ukrainian, and Polish, but also on cultural traditions and marketing objectives. Adaptation and revision ensure functional equivalence and preserve the persuasive and emotional force of advertising messages in the target contex for further research in the field of intercultural communication and localization of advertising content.
PRECEDENT UNITS IN POLISH AND UKRAINIAN MEDIA TEXTS
The article investigates the linguistic specificity of the actualization of precedent phenomena – specific linguistic elements that are closely related to the cognitive base of the ethnic group and reflect the idea of phenomena, events and facts that are important for a certain community – in Polish and Ukrainian media discourses, their suggestive potential. The relevance is due to the insufficient coverage of the described problem in Polish linguistics and the need for a comparative analysis of units used by speakers of both languages. The goal is to identify and compare the features of the use of the mentioned phenomena in Polish and Ukrainian media texts. It was found that precedent units are most often found in the headlines of news and journalistic materials, on historical portals, as well as in blogs. This pattern is quite logical, because the title performs a key function – it attracts the reader’s attention and encourages them to familiarize themselves with the main text. The use of recognizable cultural markers in the title expresses the mood of the publication, activates the necessary associations and sets the tone chosen in advance by the addressee even before reading the material itself. This is especially noticeable in texts with a socio-political connotation, where titles with precedent phenomena often serve as a mechanism for comparison, assessment, criticism or humorous play with established ideas. The tendencies of appeal and the functions of units in Polish and Ukrainian texts are generally similar, which can be explained by the fact that both languages belong to the same Slavic group of the Indo-European language family, albeit to different subgroups: Polish is a West Slavic language, while Ukrainian is an East Slavic language. Thus, such common features as grammatical similarity, syntactic proximity, cultural affinity are highlighted. The proximity of the two countries is also important, which affects the historical context. Close contacts between the Polish and Ukrainian languages form the basis for further research into the use of precedent units in them, including in a comparative aspect.
NATIONALLY MARKED STEREOTYPES IN PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS OF THE POLISH AND UKRAINIAN LANGUAGES
The article focuses on the analysis of stereotypes reflected in Polish and Ukrainian ethnophraseology, which constitute a significant part of the national and cultural worldview. Particular attention is devoted to the comparison of phraseological units with ethnonymic components that convey traditional perceptions, evaluations, and prejudices regarding both “own” and “foreign” ethnic groups. The article examines phraseological expressions with the components Jew (Żyd), German, Gypsy, Russian (Muscovite), Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Turk, and Tatar, which function in the Polish and Ukrainian languages and demonstrate both common and distinctive features in the formation of ethnocultural images. The methodological basis of the study is a combination of cognitive and cultural approaches, which makes it possible to interpret phraseologisms not only as linguistic clichés but also as value markers that accumulate social experience and reflect historical contacts, conflicts, and intercultural relations. The research material consists of data from Polish and Ukrainian lexicographic sources, supplemented by examples from literary language and online sources. The aim of the article is to identify, analyze, and compare phraseological units of Polish and Ukrainian that contain ethnonyms or other ethnoconnotative components, in order to reconstruct linguistic stereotypes about other nations and peoples. The analysis has shown that Polish and Ukrainian ethnophraseology records a number of similar stereotypes formed on the basis of shared history, geographical proximity, and contacts with neighboring peoples. The study identified a set of phraseological units with ethnic markers in Polish and Ukrainian, carried out their semantic analysis, and classified them according to types of ethnic stereotypes (positive, negative, neutral). Furthermore, both common and divergent features of stereotypical images preserved in the phraseology of the two languages were established. The conclusions emphasize that phraseology is an important source for studying ethnic stereotypes, as it reflects collective representations that preserve the cultural memory of a people. The comparison of Polish and Ukrainian material makes it possible to trace both universal patterns of stereotyping and the specificity of the national worldview.
EMOTIONAL COMPONENT OF MARIA KONOPNICKA’S NOVELTIES
The article is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of the emotional component of Maria Konopnicka’s short stories, which constitutes one of the key elements of her artistic method and determines both the aesthetic and socio-psychological significance of her works. It is emphasized that the emotional dimension of Konopnicka’s prose is not limited to the expression of her characters’ feelings but functions as a multidimensional system of images and meanings that shape the reader’s perception of the text. Special attention is given to the mechanisms of representing the inner world of the characters, including the technique of “a story within a story”, interior monologues, and dialogical interactions with the narrator. Through these artistic devices, Konopnicka constructs a multilayered narrative structure in which the subjective experiences of the characters are intertwined with the narrator’s position. The narrator is presented as a “hidden guide” who, while restricting an overt evaluative function, still influences the reader’s reception by highlighting key accents, adding ironic undertones to certain events, and creating an atmosphere of emotional tension. The article also focuses on the interrelation between the emotional dimension of the stories and their socio-moral issues. Konopnicka’s prose consistently addresses the realities of the lower social strata, demonstrating how the characters’ individual psychological experiences are embedded in the broader context of social relations. Her works reflect not only the hardships of labor, poverty, injustice, and suffering but also spiritual sensitivity, the pursuit of beauty, and the ability to find meaning in difficult life circumstances. Nature, with its symbolically saturated images, emerges not merely as a background but as a metaphorical reflection of the characters’ inner states. The study concludes that the emotional component in Konopnicka’s prose performs an integrative function: it unites the levels of narrative composition, psychological characterization of the protagonists, and the depiction of socio-moral conflicts. Thus, Konopnicka’s short stories exemplify the interplay between artistic form and emotional expressiveness, which ensures their relevance and significance within the broader context of European psychological prose of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
VANDA MIKHAJLOV AS A TABOO OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR: CZESŁAW STRASZEWICZ MICROCOSMOS IN «KUKUSHKA FORESTS VISILE»
The issue of taboos in literature is not a question of what cannot be done in life, in sociocultural practices, and in individual apperceptions - such an approach is sinful with its utilitarianism and depth. Taboo is what transforms dialectical into metaphysical, leads to dynamic immobilization with its subsequent devastation. Behind such processing and conducting there are discursive changes in the world of the individual as well as the world of the community in which the individual realizes his existence. If we resort to analogy, the taboo category in written texts is similar to Planck’s constant in quantum physics. Even if for some condition even one digit were changed far behind the decimal point in its continued fraction (which it is itself), the world would become different at all; first of all, it is supposed in its extrapolation to organic life, accordingly, of course, would be different and the reception of this world would be the whole biocenosis. The taboo for any sociocultural practice, a variation of which is literature as a subject, is a multifaceted and multi-shadowed phenomenon. The edges of his understanding are thin and ambiguous - similar to a number far behind the decimal point in a continued fraction - but “break” at least one edge, her personality intelligibility, and also of others in the context of the whole concept of category, changes and the being “worrying about crossing” this edge and the existence of the surrounding social reality. Maurice Druon concluded that the elimination of the taboo, its transgression and trampling in the discourse of the activities of the elite of society, will necessarily lead to the strengthening of the role of mediocrity in history, which in the future will end the last one due to the end of a discourse like this. And Czesław Straszewicz concluded that trampling a taboo, its interpretation as something that hinders the self-realization of an individual, includes the conciliatory dualism of the reception of crime as simply a fact (not necessarily a misfortune) and a fluid modernity with its freedom from all moral and legal limitations, narrowness of mind and conditions. existence. On the one hand, when there are certain prohibitions in society, the social world is rigidly structured, hierarchical, burdened with a network of various communication obligations, the destruction of taboos is a protest for social lifts, on the other - violating the prohibitions, even partially, may have unforeseen consequences.
IDEOLOGICAL AND AESTHETIC PARAMETERS OF THE DRAMATURGY OF STANISŁAW PRZYBYSHEWSKI AND VOLODYMYR VYNNYCHENKO
The article examines the features of the dramaturgy of the Polish author Stanisław Przybyszewski (1868-1927) and the Ukrainian author Volodymyr Vynnychenko (1880–1951) at a comparative and typological level. The commonality of their philosophical and worldview dominants of creativity, the influence of Western European writing on the formation of the fundamental foundations of their poetics and aesthetics are proven, while the differences between them are also revealed. Analyzing the dramas of Polish and Ukrainian writers in the light of modern comparative literary methodology, the research focus is mainly on the models of the “new European play” created by the writers with its meticulous focus on the inner-psychological world of the characters, on emotional-physiological senses and feelings and needs, on habitual human instincts. This is how Polish playwright Stanisław Przybyszewski presents the instincts of love, sex, and conscience, or in general the psychological and pathological state of an ego-individualist (“In the Name of Happiness,” “The Golden Fleece,” “Mother,” “The Eternal Tale,” “The City,” etc.)and in the plays of Ukrainian author Volodymyr Vynnychenko, the instincts of honesty, love, eroticism, fatherhood, duty, morality, and the genetic self-rooting of one’s own “self” become fateful for the heroes of his plays (“Disharmony”, “Steps of Life”, “Memento”, “Bazaar”, “Lie”, “Black Panther and the White Bear” etc.). In such works by both writers, the moral, mental and spiritual retributions of the characters for their actions and immoral instincts, no matter how natural they may be, appear true. The article uses the example of analyzing these self-expressions of characters to examine in a comparative manner drama “Snow” by Stanisław Przybyszewski and drama “Law” by Volodymyr Vynnychenko. Built on the respective concepts of “naked soul” (in the works of the Polish playwright) and “honesty with oneself” (in the plays of the Ukrainian writer), they each revealed the basic instincts of their characters in their own way. But the only difference exists between these works: in the first play the erotic instinct prevailed, and in the second play the maternal instinct plays the main role. This cross-section of the issues and plot, as well as the main direction of the general pathos of both works (despite their writing at different times), substantiates their similarity, as well as their difference in stylistic colouring. If the Polish author symbolically recognized an abstract event and action that was quite distant from reality, the Ukrainian author resorted to completely real circumstances and events, focusing on the example of one family and at the same time used realistic-expressionist techniques in his creative manner. Therefore we can argue about the dissimilarity and stylistic originality of their dramatic artistic thinking. The study also focuses on the comparative and typological characteristics of the study of these works, as well as the entire dramaturgy of Stanisław Przybyszewski and Volodymyr Vynnychenko, with their stage versions in the theatrical art of Poland and Ukraine.
psychological and physiological instinct
NATURE, BODY, AND MOVEMENT IN OLGA TOKARCHUK’S NOVEL “BIEGUNI” (RUNNERS): AN ECOCRITICAL READING
In her novel “Bieguni” (Runners), Olga Tokarchuk creates a postmodern mosaic text that combines travel, myth, essay, and poetic prose, where the main themes are movement, multiplicity, nomadism, the boundaries of identity, empathy, and contemplation. The work forms a complex ontological perspective in which humans lose their central place in the world order, and nature emerges as a dynamic, diverse, and autonomous substance. Through the mosaic structure of the novel, fragments of observations and stories, the heroine discovers a new philosophy of movement, realizing herself as part of the living environment. Movement becomes a form of being, and physicality becomes a way of knowing the world. Childhood memories and interactions with the river, the earth, and darkness demonstrate how nature shapes consciousness and sets the limits of experience, echoing Bruno Latour’s ideas about the shared existence of humans and “nonhumans”. At the same time, plastic and garbage in the text function as a material metaphor for the Anthropocene: they symbolize the total penetration of the artificial into the natural world and highlight the anthropogenic influence of humans. The heroine is constantly on the move, and her nomadism is contrasted with the rootedness of her parents’ generation, revealing different models of coexistence with the environment. Bodily and anatomical details, attention to the “anomalies” and “monstrosity” of nature demonstrate the equality of all forms of life and the unpredictability of the world. A comparison with Max Kidruk’s scientific and rational approach, which emphasizes the effective and conscious use of plastic, shows the current trend of combining emotional and ecological sensitivity with technologically sound responsibility. Thus, “Bieguni” (Runners) offer a postanthropocentric vision of the world, where movement, materiality, and interdependence become the basis of existence, and human responsibility for the ecosystem is a key criterion of contemporary ecological thinking.
MYKHAILO MUKHYN ON UKRAINE AND UKRAINIANS IN THE WORKS OF POLISH WRITERS OF THE 1920S–1930S
Mykhailo Mukhyn (1894–1974) was a public and political figure, literary critic, and writer who, despite being somewhat overlooked among twentieth-century Ukrainian intellectuals, remains an important voice that cannot be ignored. He actively contributed to a wide range of Ukrainian and émigré periodicals, including The Ukrainian Student (Prague, 1923–1924), Society – La Société (Prague, 1925–1926), Student Bulletin (Prague, 1928, 1930–1931), Literature and Science Bulletin (later Visnyk, Lviv, 1928–1934, 1949) etc. He also worked at the Proboem publishing house in Prague (1939–1943). Mukhyn’s scholarly, journalistic, and literary legacy is marked by a consistent Ukrainian-centric perspective, oriented toward nation-building and grounded in historical, political, and ideological analysis. His writing combined cultural criticism with carefully argued factual evidence, often supported by multiple sources. This methodological approach defined his work across different periods: during the Ukrainian national revolution of 1917–1921, his first emigration in interwar Czechoslovakia (Prague, Podebrady, Uzhhorod), and later in Germany. The article is devoted to an analysis of the response to Ukraine and Ukrainians in Polish literature of the 1920s–1930s through the lens of Mykhailo Mukhyn’s literary studies. Attention is focused on literary texts that represent Ukraine as a distinctive cultural and symbolic space. Mukhyn emphasized the ambivalence of Ukrainian archetypal images: alongside romanticized motifs of the steppe, folklore, and the lost paradise″, ″stereotypical notions appear of the ″chaotic frontier″ or the ″perilous other″. The analysis draws on the works of J. Iwaszkiewicz, F. Rawita-Gawroński, M. Rodziewiczówna, J. Łada, J. Tuwim and others, in which images of Ukraine and Ukrainians are presented in a semi-mythologized form while at the same time carry ideological connotations. Particular attention is paid to how interwar literature reflected key political and military events, including the November Uprising of 1918, the Polish-Ukrainian war, and the social transformations of the borderlands. The article also highlights the essence of Mukhyn’s criticism and his dialogue with Yurii Lypa in the consideration of the “Ukrainian theme” in Polish prose. At the same time, the analysis is further elucidated through references to the evaluations of Polish critics and contemporary scholars — Olha Hnatiuk, Adriana Koput, Yuliia Artymyshyn, Svitlana Kravchenko, Rostyslav Radyshevskyi, and Sofiia Kohut — which makes it possible to relate literary images with their historical and political contexts. Accordingly, the study of Mykhailo Mukhyn’s legacy opens new perspectives for contemporary Ukrainian-Polish comparative studies, fostering the integration of historical and literary analysis with an understanding of current challenges of cultural memory and dialogue between the two nations.
ON THE PROBLEM OF NIETZSEANISM IN POLISHAND UKRAINIAN MODERNISM. WACŁAW BERENTAND LESIA UKRAINKA
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.
UKRAINIAN POLISH-LANGUAGE TREATISES IN THE COMMUNICATIVE DISCOURSE OF THE MATURE BAROQUE PERIOD
The article analyzes Ukrainian Polish-language treatises of the mature Baroque period in the context of their functioning in the communicative discourse of the era. It traces the historical, cultural, and social circumstances that led to the emergence of this phenomenon and identifies the specific features of treatises as a genre-communicative form that combines the characteristics of scientific argumentation, rhetorical tradition, and confessional-polemical literature. The key discursive strategies of the authors aimed at influencing the reader are outlined, as well as the linguistic and stylistic dominants that ensured the effectiveness of communicative interaction. It has been established that each of the works was characterized by logical argumentation, clear presentation, and a desire to convince the reader. Their authors analyzed the causes of historical vicissitudes, formed theological concepts, organized church history, laying the foundations for future national self-awareness and attesting to the existence in Ukraine of a powerful intellectual elite capable of defending and developing spiritual and cultural values. The focus is on the role of the Polish language as an important means of intercultural communication, which contributed to the spread of Baroque ideas in the Ukrainian and European contexts. The work emphasizes the importance of Polish-language treatises in the formation of the intellectual culture of the Ukrainian Baroque and their value as a source for contemporary humanities studies. The study found that Ukrainian Polish-language treatises of the mature Baroque period constitute an important part of Ukrainian intellectual and cultural tradition. They served as a dialogue between tradition and new ideas, between local identity and the broader European context. The study also showed that the treatises of this period reflect the peculiarities of the cultural dialogue between Ukrainian and Western European traditions. Their analysis makes it possible to outline the patterns of formation of genre and style models of Baroque rhetoric and to identify the communicative mechanisms of influence on public consciousness. The results obtained can serve as a basis for further studies aimed at examining the processes of intercultural interaction and the place of Ukrainian Baroque culture in the pan-European intellectual space. Their study gives modern scholars the opportunity to comprehend not only the historical and cultural conditions of the Baroque era, but also the origins of Ukrainian intellectual integration into the European space. That is why these treatises remain relevant today, as they help us better understand the mechanisms of cultural communication, the foundations of national identity, and the spiritual stability of society.
POLISH UKRAINICA IN ANTONI SEREDNICKI’S LITERARY-CRITICAL RECEPTION
The aim of this article is to analyze and systematize the thematic priorities of Polish writers, translators, and scholars’ artistic interests in Ukrainian subjects as reflected in the literary-critical receptions of the noted Polish literary scholar Antoni Serednicki. The article argues that the study of comparative — and, in particular, imagological — reflections of creative relations between Polish and Ukrainian literatures is an especially timely task for contemporary literary scholarship and requires further systematization and methodological elaboration. The study examines the thematic range of literary-scholarly research addressing the cultural-historical and, more specifically, literary aspects of Polish–Ukrainian creative contacts, as represented in Serednicki’s numerous literary-critical surveys. The thematic and research scope of his observations is analyzed on the basis of a large body of overview and monographic articles that evaluate the general development of Polish–Ukrainian literary relations as well as their representation in the work of individual authors from the two neighbouring literatures. In the present study the wide and multifaceted spectrum of Polish–Ukrainian literary relations is considered in the context of Ukrainian themes as they appear in the works of Polish writers of the first half of the twentieth century — e. g. Stanisław Wyspiański, Stefan Żeromski, Władysław Orkan, Władysław Reymont, Stanisław Vincenz, Wacław Lipiński, and others — and of authors of the second half of the century such as Jan Brzoza, Wacław Kubacki, Jerzy Stempowski, Włodzimierz Słobodnik, Józef Łobodowski, Wanda Wasilewska, Władysław Broniewski, Jerzy Harasymowicz, Maria Dąbrowska, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, and others. The article separately highlights the contribution of Polish literary scholars, translators, and folklorists to the development of bilateral literary relations, demonstrating how their work fostered channels of cultural exchange and transnational intellectual networks between Poland and Ukraine. It is concluded that, under contemporary political conditions, the topic of Polish–Ukrainian literary relations is acquiring growing importance and attracting increasing attention from researchers in both countries. This trend stimulates further interest in cultural exchange, deepens research in comparative literature and imagology, and strengthens creative contacts between our peoples.
INTEGRATION OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE INTO TRANSLATION PRACTICE AND EDUCATION: ETHICAL AND PROFESSIONAL DIMENSIONS
The article examines the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into translation practice and translator education. It analyzes the evolution of translation theories from linguistic to hybrid human–machine models, emphasizing the growing importance of technological, analytical, and ethical competences. The study highlights how AI tools, such as machine translation and CAT systems, influence the translator’s professional identity and ethical responsibility. It argues that AI does not replace human creativity but transforms translation into a collaborative process between human intellect and technology. Special attention is given to translator training in the Polish–Ukrainian context, where hybrid competence combining linguistic sensitivity, intercultural awareness, and digital literacy is essential for the modern translation profession. The article explores the integration of artificial intelligence into translator education and practice, emphasizing the necessity of a hybrid competence model that combines humanistic sensitivity with digital skills. Particular attention is paid to post-editing, understood as critical revision of machine-generated texts with recognition of semantic, stylistic, and pragmatic deviations. The training process highlights intercultural and linguistic awareness, especially in the Polish–Ukrainian context, where language proximity may cause semantic interference and subtle translation errors. Practical scenarios include parallel text analysis, glossary building with CAT tools, simulation of real translation projects, and ethical discussions on the risks of uncritical machine use. The proposed approach prepares graduates for the demands of the contemporary translation market, where human translators act not only as linguistic operators but also as analysts, editors, and mediators between cultures and technologies. AI and CAT tools are thus framed not as a threat but as an extension of translators’ cognitive and creative capacities. Translator education is therefore redefined as a space of human-technology interaction, maintaining human agency as the core of meaning-making.
UKRAINIAN TRANSLATION ANTHOLOGIES AS A PANORAMAOF POLISH LITERATURE: (RE)CONSTRUCTING AXIOLOGICAL AND AESTHETIC ORIENTATIONS
The article examines anthologies of Polish literature translated into Ukrainian and published over the thirty years of Ukraine’s independence. The study covers both collections of poetry and the relatively few anthologies of prose and drama, treating them as significant testimonies of the reception of Polish culture within the Ukrainian literary and intellectual landscape. The author highlights methodological aspects of anthologization, emphasizing the role of translators-editors who, through their individual aesthetic and axiological choices, substantially shape the image of Polish literature. Rather than serving as neutral compendia, these anthologies become spaces of subjective interpretation, constructing a literary canon according to personal hierarchies of values. The analysis identifies major tendencies: the predominance of authorial poetry anthologies, the limited number of comprehensive collections of prose and essays, and the emergence of the first anthologies of drama. It is noted that these anthologies perform not only informative and popularizing functions but also a cultural role: they acquaint Ukrainian readers with the diversity of Polish literary tradition while simultaneously enabling reflection on their own identity and place within European culture. The study also explores how editorial choices, biographical notes and thematic organization contribute to contextualizing Polish authors within broader historical and literary frameworks. An important finding is the weak critical reception of such publications, which hinders their integration into broader scholarly discourse. The article argues that contemporary translation anthologies can be read as narratives about both the “other” and the “self”. From an axiological and aesthetic perspective, they represent a shift from the traditional framing of Polish literature within the sphere of polonia slavica toward its presentation as polonia incognita, a phenomenon rediscovered in the space of Polish-Ukrainian dialogue.
THE IMAGE OF THE EMPEROR OF FRANCE, NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, IN THE MEMOIRS OF ALEKSANDER FREDRO
The most recognizable figure of Galicia in the 19th century for Polish cultural memory remains the creator of comedies Alexander Fredro. Already in the first quarter of the 19th century, the dramaturgy of Alexander Fredro gradually turned Galicia into a center of Polish culture. The theater was the center of cultural and social life in Lviv almost throughout the 19th century. A. Fredro is also the author of the special memoirs “Three by Three”, which present the events of the Napoleonic Wars and the author’s own participation in them. The figure of the Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte in the works of Aleksander Fredro is an interesting example of the depiction of a historical figure in European literature of the 19th century. Fredro was one of Napoleon’s orderlies in 1813–1814. These memoirs are a monument and testimony to Fredro’s worldview, rooted in the noble past, in the history of the Polish struggle for independence – as part of the French imperial army. “Three by Three” is an important source on the relationship between the Polish officer corps of the French army and the emperor himself, his attitude towards the independence of Poland. The image of Napoleon in Fredro’s memoirs is not a historical document. It is rather an artistic image based on the playwright’s personal observations and generalizations, his subjective literary and artistic portrait. The author of the memoirs, twenty-year-old Alexander Fredro, a captain in Napoleon Bonaparte’s Grand Army, was one of hundreds of thousands, a small cog in this great war machine, who had to transmit orders from the headquarters of the commander-in-chief, the emperor, which launched and directed the mechanisms of military action. Years later, Fredro would also give a bitter description of the consequences of the Poles’ participation in the Napoleonic wars, which, despite the hard military work, the blood, sweat, and victory, did not bring liberation to Poland.
“THE LETTERS OF CINNAMON SHOPS”: BRUNO SCHULZ IN THE READING OF SERHIY ZHADAN
The author of the article focuses on the genesis, contexts and interpretative description of the texts by Serhiy Zhadan – the most important Ukrainian poet today – related to the work and figure of Bruno Schulz, including three essays, currently published only in Polish translation (“Drohobych and Its Surroundings”, “Schulz: Visions and Echoes”, “Artist In Wartime – Schulz Lost and Salvaged”) and the cycle of poems “Schulz. Psalms” from the poet’s latest volume “Skrypnykivka” (2023). The conceptual framework and narrative impulse of Schulz’s themes in Zhadan’s oeuvre is a poet’s regular participation in the International Bruno Schulz Festival (SchulzFest) held in Drohobych since 2004 on a biennial basis. The volume of poems Drohobych (2018), which exists only in the Polish edition, translated by Jacek Podsiadło, opens the presence of Schulz and Drohobych in Zhadan’s thinking and imagination as an autonomous literary project. After his first encounter with Drohobych, he confesses that he will always read this city in “the letters of cinnamon shops” – he was the first to encounter Schulz’s shadow there, which constantly returns. Zhadan suggests that one should not cry for Schulz’s worlds – one should believe in them, and during the war he speaks of Schulz lost and salvaged, of burned letters and lost manuscripts, of the defenselessness of art in the face of horror and of its saving power. The author of the article focuses on the interpretative discovery and interpretation of dramatic and figurative wholes, poetic and philosophical meanings, and contextual and intertextual traces that Serhiy Zhadan embodies in his reading of Bruno Schulz’s figure and literary heritage; invites to reflect on Schulz’s return and living presence in Zhadan’s texts, on the feeling of kinship with the genius who became a victim of the Holocaust and is now reborn in memory thanks to the psalmical power of the poet’s word, on the fascinating and sometimes unexpected paths of reading Schulz’s Drohobych “in the letters of cinnamon shops”. The author interprets Zhadan’s three unpublished essays in Ukrainian about both Schulz and Drohobych and his cycle of poems “Schulz. Psalms” as an exceptional literary whole with powerful interpretive potential in which symbolic figures and poetic insights from different times are intertwined, including intentional and immanent affinities and echoes not only with the author of “Cinnamon Shops”, but also with Paul Celan, Jerzy Ficowski, Ryszard Krynicki, and Rainer Maria Rilke. The article touches on the deep and vast space of Zhadan’s texts dedicated to Schulz, with the literary and extra-literary traces as well as meanings revealed in this space.
TWO MODELS OF NARRATIVE IDENTITY IN THE LITERARY URBANISM OF CZEŁAW MILOSZ AND TOMAS VENCLOVA
The article examines the correspondence between Czeslaw Miłosz and Tomas Venclova in the aspect of a public declaration of views on the problem of Polish-Lithuanian understanding. The free-flowing story about the current state of this important dialogue was the result of the synthesis of an autobiographical narrative with an analysis of the historical situation, a reproduction of the past and the present in the format of a personal destiny. The letters are written from the perspective of emigrants, which causes the ambivalence of the narrative technique. On the one hand, this is a reproduction of the palimpsest city in the context of its centuries-old history, on the other hand, it is an emotional subjective approach to the description of the small homeland. Built on the play of these plans, the story allows the authors to balance, without adhering to a certain ideology, the concept of being Vilna / Vilnius in the cultural geography of Eastern Europe. The list of Polish and Lithuanian emigrants goes beyond private communication and bears all the signs of writing as a national identity. The writers set before themselves the most comprehensive understanding of both peoples, coming from historical reality, conjunctural minds and ideological controversies. Vilno / Vilnius serves as a drive for broad references, historical and philosophical developments and virtuoso inscription of a special part in the format of history and culture from the times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the present day. As a place-palimpsest with rich cultural sagas, replete with a national warehouse, it very much becomes a valid enclave, in the middle of which a new similar European identity is being formed. Both Miłosz and Venclova are aware of their diversity and have no interest or affiliation with the so-called “mest” theories and concepts, to put it simply Lithuanization or polonization. At the same time, Vilno / Vilnius produces powerful sensations that form the foundation for understanding the Lithuanian capital in the context of European literary urbanism. Vaughn evokes a special sound from the perspective of expulsion, emigration, due to the pain, the dislocation of the catastrophic information, the national tragedy.
I. FRANKO IN THE INTERTEXTUAL FIELD OF LITERATURE
The article explores the creative dialogue of Ivan Franko with Juliusz Słowacki, Jan Kasprowicz, and other writers of the 19th century as well as different time-spaces. Franko’s intertextual practice demonstrates not only the quoting possibilities of artistic literature, which go beyond mere reminiscences and allusions, but also provides a process of transforming certain plots into the author’s own narrative, mediating both direct and indirect communication between writers, and ensuring the circulation of ideas and images in their works, which each time acquired new artistic qualities at the intersection of common and distinctive features. This is not about mechanical imitation or borrowing but rather about a meaningful conversation between Ivan Franko, Juliusz Słowacki, and other writers – a creative rivalry. This dialogue is documented in the poems “Odpowiedź na “Psalmy przyszłości” Spiridionowi Prawdzickiemu” (“A Response to the “Psalms of the Future” to Spiridion Prawdzicki”, addressed to Z. Krasiński) by Juliusz Słowacki and “Вічний революціонер” (“Eternal Revolutionary”) by Ivan Franko, filled with each poet’s personal interpretations related to stylistic features of different epochs, as well as semantic and historically specific contexts. The article examines the possibilities of the “speech ontology” of Franko’s “Тюремні сонети” (“Prison Sonnets”), evidently inspired by Jan Kasprowicz’s cycle “Z więzienia” (“From the Prison”), as well as Franko’s dialogue with other sonneteers (L. de Vega, A.–W. Schlegel) concerning the poetic definition of strict stanzaic form. Analogies are traced between Franko’s edition and Jan Kasprowicz’s poetry collection “Miłość” (“Love”, 1895), with its characteristic three-phase composition (poems “L’amore desperato”, “Miłość-Grzech”, “Amor vincens”) and the three cycles of Franko’s “Зів’яле листя” (“Withered Leaves”). Finally, the article clarifies the specifics of Franko’s socio-psychological novel “Лель і Полель” (“Lelum and Polelum”), which alludes to Juliusz Słowacki’s drama “Lilla Weneda”, yet expands its spatial and semantic dimensions.
REPRESENTATION OF UKRAINIAN AND POLISH CULTURAL CODES IN LILIIA KORNILIEVA’S FAIRY TALE “THE LEGEND OF A CASTLE”
The article analyzes Liliia Kornilieva’s fairy tale “The Legend of a Castle” as a literary text that recreates the multifaceted intercultural space of the Ukrainian-Polish borderlands. The author examines how Ukrainian and Polish cultural codes are represented through domestic details, archetypal characters, and symbolic objects. Particular attention is given to the linguistic strategies of the tale, which construct a vernacular-fantastic mythopoetics and emphasize moral virtues, compassion, and the spiritual resilience of the protagonists. The fairy tale demonstrates a model of intercultural dialogue where traditions coexist in harmony without the dominance of one culture over the other. Ukrainian culture in the narrative is expressed through ethnographic details of Carpathian life: Kosiv painted ceramics, weaving, pottery, woodcraft, and dialect vocabulary. These elements form an authentic “dictionary of culture” that blends documentary precision with artistic imagination. The characters are not reduced to flat archetypes but are portrayed as complex moral figures rooted in collective memory and folk ethics. The symbolic role of the earrings – an heirloom repeatedly leaving and returning to the castle – embodies the sacred continuity of family memory while acting as a cultural bridge between Ukrainian and Polish traditions. At the same time, the Polish cultural code is reflected through the image of the noble family, the castle, and the conventions of lineage and honor. Liliia Kornilieva skillfully contrasts dynastic marriages of advantage, which lead to decline, with the spiritually grounded union of the nobleman’s younger son and the Ukrainian peasant’s daughter, which brings renewal and harmony. In this way, the tale demonstrates how intercultural dialogue can generate positive transformation. The language of the story, rich in dialect forms, archaisms, rhythmic repetitions, and metaphoric imagery, produces a vernacular-fantastic mythopoetics that integrates Carpathian everyday life with a new intercultural myth about the power of memory, mercy, and love.
THE WORK OF JERZY JĘDRZEJEWICZAT THE CROSSROADS OF IDENTITIES
The article traces the life and creative journey of Jerzy Jędrzejewicz — an outstanding Polish literary scholar, translator, and writer, whose figure became one of the central elements in shaping the Polish-Ukrainian cultural dialogue of the 20th century. His activity went far beyond the framework of academic research or literary practice: it embodied a profound humanistic mission, a genuine striving for mutual understanding and spiritual rapprochement between nations that, while historically coexisting side by side, often remained divided by political circumstances and stereotypes. A special focus is placed on Jędrzejewicz’s translations of Ukrainian literature. The article highlights his unique approach to rendering the works of Taras Shevchenko and Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi. His translations stood out for their exceptional precision and high artistic quality. They were never a simple act of linguistic transfer; instead, they functioned as genuine cultural bridges, opening for Polish readers the world of Ukrainian spirituality, traditions, and artistic values. For many, his translations offered the first authentic encounter with Ukrainian literature, allowing them to perceive its depth, poetics, and universal humanistic message. Equally important is the theme of Jędrzejewicz’s multilayered cultural identity. Formed at the crossroads of Polish, Ukrainian, and broader European traditions, it enabled him to approach literature from a broad and objective perspective. He was able to recognize in literary texts not only their national features but also the universal meanings and values that transcend borders. This openness allowed him not only to translate but also to interpret and contextualize Ukrainian literature within the Polish cultural space, laying the groundwork for a sustained literary dialogue between the two nations. Jędrzejewicz’s scholarly and translational work played a decisive role in shaping Polish-Ukrainian literary relations throughout the 20th century. His achievements provided a foundation for future academic studies and established standards of translation that remain exemplary to this day, demonstrating how fidelity to the spirit of the original can coexist with respect for its cultural and aesthetic uniqueness. At the same time, Jędrzejewicz’s legacy cannot be reduced merely to books, articles, or translations. It is a vivid example of how an individual can influence an entire cultural landscape, reshape the atmosphere of interethnic relations, dismantle prejudice, and build bridges of trust. In our contemporary world, marked by global challenges and the search for new forms of cooperation, his humanism, respect for cultural diversity, and unwavering commitment to dialogue remain profoundly relevant. The article emphasizes that the legacy of Jerzy Jędrzejewicz is more than history: it is a living reminder of the power of the written word to unite people and to open new horizons of cooperation. His creative path and his translations demonstrate that cultural dialogue is not an abstract ideal but a real process in which every text, every interpretation, and every intellectual effort can become a step toward greater understanding between nations.
COSSACK LEADERS AS DEPICTED IN THE WORKSOF JULIAN URSYN NIEMCEWICZ
This article analyses Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz’s late eighteenth-century historical tragedy “Bohdan Chmielnicki”, which depicts the Ukrainian Cossack leader against the backdrop of the mid-seventeenth-century national liberation war. Written during Niemcewicz’s later creative period, the play blends Enlightenment morals with early Romantic interest in national history. Drawing on real events — including the Czapliński affair, the battles of Korsun (1648) and Batih (1652), and the deaths of Tymish and Bohdan Khmelnytskyi himself — the author constructs a retrospective narrative that adheres to classical unities while dramatizing the moral and political dilemmas of leadership. Bohdan Khmelnytskyi is portrayed ambivalently: as both a patriot committed to Ukrainian independence and a figure driven by personal grievances and the desire for revenge. In his historical writings, Niemcewicz employed a selective yet vivid depiction of events. He was less concerned with strict documentary precision than with creating instructive narratives that conveyed moral and political lessons. History, in his view, was simultaneously a site of cultural remembrance and a stage for exploring the ethical dilemmas inherent in leadership, loyalty, and statehood. In “Bohdan Chmielnicki”, this approach manifests in a polarization that balances historical fact with interpretive shaping. The Cossack uprising is framed through a Polish perspective, yet the protagonist is given psychological depth, com- plex motives, and moments of genuine moral reflection. Major political shifts in Poland led authors to write in ways that reflected individual feelings, personal struggles, and inner thoughts — not just external logic or moral lessons. Thus, Niemcewicz promoted the tantalizing idea that sympathy can be a major vehicle for gaining a more accurate understanding of what is going on in the minds and lives of other people. Niemcewicz uses the past to explore the causes of national decline and to warn against the perils of internal division. “Bohdan Chmielnicki” serves not only as a dramatic reconstruction of a significant historical conflict but also as a philosophical reflection on the destructive consequences of national division and the absence of lasting alliances. By merging political history with personal drama, Niemcewicz creates a work that anticipates Romantic notions of heroic struggle and tragic fate, while retaining the moralizing tone of Enlightenment theatre.
MYTHOLOGY OF STEPPE IN JÓZEF BOHDAN ZALESKI’S POETRY(WITH MARIA IN THE BACKGROUND)
The article studies the formation and functions of the myth of the steppe in the poetry of Józef Bohdan Zaleski, one of the leading representatives of the so-called “Ukrainian school” in Polish Romantic literature. The analysis situates Zaleski’s poetic imagination within the broader 19th-century Polish discourse on Ukraine initiated by Antoni Malczewski’s Maria. Following E. Kasperski’s concept, Maria opened a new phase in the Polish reflection on Ukraine, introducing the mythic, cultural, and moral dimensions of the region. The paper addresses how the idea of the steppe developed from a geographical and ethnographic image into a mythopoetic symbol of freedom, memory, and spiritual continuity. The research applies a comparative and contextual approach, juxtaposing Zaleski’s and Malczewski’s representations of Ukraine with critical interpretations by E. Feliksiak, E. Kasperski, and W. Hnatiuk. Textual analysis focuses on recurring motifs –grave, spirit (Duch), steppe plants (nature), poet (pieśń), that form a system of poetic symbols revealing different layers of meaning: historical, religious, and metaphysical. While Malczewski’s steppe in Maria reflects the allegorical “theatrum mundi” of the Polish-Ukrainian past, Zaleski transforms it into a personal and Cossack myth. His vision of the “steppe of graves” symbolizes the rebirth of what cannot die – the human spirit, dignity, and the idea of statehood. The poet’s lyrical self appears as an heir to both Christian and Pagan traditions, awaiting inspiration from the “Duch od stepu,” understood as a metaphor for poetic and national awakening. Zaleski’s Romantic myth of the steppe reveals the ambivalence of Romantic consciousness: nostalgia for a lost homeland combined with the search for a transcendent homeland in art. The steppe becomes both the homeland of the Cossacks and the meeting ground of cultures, thus reflecting the multilayered identity of the region. The study concludes that the myth of the steppe functioned as a medium of cultural memory and an instrument of reconciling divided historical narratives. By transforming the collective myth into a personal spiritual experience, Zaleski ensured the continuity of Romantic mythopoesis and preserved the Ukrainian landscape as a space of his poetic revelation.
THE HUNT, THE FOREST, THE MACHINE.IN THE EYES OF KAROLINA PRONIEWSKA OF SAMOGITIAAND WŁODZIMIERZ WYSOCKI FROM KYIV
The author of the study analyses two poetic works from the 19th century, whose topic is the hunt: the poem Polowanie [The Hunt] of 1858 by Karolina Proniewska (1828–1859), a Polish poet from Samogitia, and the poem Las [The Forest] of 1885 by Włodzimierz Wysocki (1846–1894), a Polish poet from Kyiv. The analysis of the texts reveals a private and social background of the genesis of both works and the transformation of attitudes towards the social ritual of hunting that was so popular among Polish gentry. In the poem by Wysocki, a perspective of civilizational and national cataclysm is drawn (cutting down the forest, end of feelings, death), while Proniewska reveals a new, environmental awareness of early modern humans, who do not hunt to kill anymore; they hunt to show their sensitivity. The comparison reveals a shared motif of hunting, though developed from contrasting perspectives. Proniewska presents hunting as both literal and metaphorical, an allegory of courtship, where true victory lies in compassion and restraint. Her poem elevates sensitivity, mercy, and moral awareness, deconstructing the noble ethos of the hunt and affirming life as synonymous with love. In contrast, Wysocki depicts the ritual of the hunt as an empty form in a devastated Ukrainian landscape. The destruction of the forest – once a space of refuge for insurgents and of symbolic vitality – marks not only ecological ruin but also social, national, and civilizational catastrophe. For the positivist writer, this signals disillusionment with progress and assimilation, exposing apocalyptic undertones of modernity. Together, the texts illustrate the cultural shift of the 19th century: the collapse of traditional hunting rituals and the rise of a new ecological and moral sensibility. Proniewska voices the dawn of modern sensitivity, while Wysocki registers the crisis of civilization, both uncovering the intellectual gains of a provincial perspective. Their juxtaposition highlights the dual legacy of the century: hope for renewal through empathy and despair at irreversible decline. Thus, the two works together reveal how peripheral voices articulated both ecological awareness and civilizational anxiety.