“Polish Influences” in Vasyl Shchurat’s Study “Shevchenko and the Poles: The Basis of Mutual Relations” (the Contextual Aspect)

Анотація

The article examines the concept of “Polish influences” in Vasyl Shchurat’s Shevchenko and the Poles: the Basis of Mutual Relations (1917). Generally, the author of the monograph discusses possible influences in two aspects: biographical (personal contacts and acquaintances) and contextual (borrowed ideas and influence on views). The article examines the contextual concept of what Shchurat calls “influences” in two respects. Firstly, in terms of the reliability of the facts presented, comparing them with modern research; and, secondly, the significance that the author of the research gave to the presented information in the first place. Not all of Shchurat’s conclusions were
correct, partly due to the lack of documents and information known at the time. What is more, the article proves that the word “influence” in Shchurat’s understanding does not mean “borrowing”, but rather “inspiration” or “being familiar with”. Although the discussed monograph of Shchurat was rejected by Soviet literary studies for being too pro-Polish, analysing it from the point of view of the current state of Shevchenko studies seems important as it remains part of Ukrainian historical literary studies and belongs to those works that constitute the beginnings of comparative literary studies in Ukraine.