Shevchenko’s Myth in the Katerynoslav’s Urban Public Space in Late 19th — Early 20th Centuries

Abstract

The research purpose is to find out how the national myth of T. Shevchenko began to penetrate into the public sphere of Katerynoslav (Yekaterinoslav) which was one of the largest multi-ethnic industrial Ukrainian cities at the end of the nineteenth century.

The relevance is based on the modern historiographical situation, which is dominated by populist and local lore approaches for studying the regional reception of Shevchenko’s heritage.

Research methodology. The key to research is the concept of a myth which means a closed semiotic system with a set of universal symbols, which through a ritual is able to perform its regulatory function. In the public space, the myth is (re)produced as a result of public actors’ activities. In order to defi ne and analyze these public actors it is proposed personal and institutional approach. In addition to general scientific and historical methods, content analysis and case study methods are used. The author has developed a model for studying the genesis and assimilation of Shevchenko’s myth in the regional public space.

Conclusions. The national myth of Shevchenko had a nonlinear path of formation and development in Katerynoslav. Originating in the public space in the mid-1880s, the myth was circulating in a narrow circle of the local intelligentsia (I. Manzhura, M. Bykov), who had an attempt to shape the populist myth of Shevchenko. However, in the early 1900s, a completely different institutional and personnel environment emerged in Katerynoslav. The new public agents of Shevchenko’s discourse were representatives of "personnel import" of the humanitarian profile who were committed to the Ukrainian idea (D. Yavornytskyi, A. Syniavskyi). They promoted the national myth of Shevchenko both through acting in public organizations and working in official institutions. On the one hand, the product of the assimilation of this myth was its instrumentalization by different local ideological groups; on the other hand, the crystallization of national identity and self-identifi cation in urban public space had a place. The proposed research model can be useful not only for studying the functioning of the Shevchenko’s myth in other regions but also for intellectual and regional history studies in general.