NATION-BUILDING POTENTIAL OF HISTORICAL MEMORY: CORYPHAEUS IN THE PUBLIC CONSCIOUSNESS OF UKRAINIANS

Abstract

The article attempts to analyze the potential of the historical memory of the theater of coryphaeus in the context of affirming the values and ideals of the Ukrainian nation in the XXI century. The need to preserve and promote the best examples of Ukraine’s cultural heritage in view of globalization processes and their challenges was noted. There are three areas in which it is advisable to return to the national memory of the achievements of coryphaeus. The first – scientific – describes the main academic studies of this topic over the past decade – numerous publications and monographs, including large-scale studies of Ukrainian literary critic A. Novikov on the founder of the new Ukrainian theater M. Kropyvnytsky. The second direction – artistic and literary – covers the characteristic forms and genres of figurative interpretation of the life and work of artists of the Ukrainian theater of the late XIX century. The focus is on modern approaches – the emergence of “literature of fact” as a method of writing about a well-known fact, which is shown in the new author’s coverage. Among such single examples, the works of the laureate of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine H. Huseynov – “Divine Grains” and “Untouched Snows” are emphasized. The third direction – cinematography – is outlined as a promising and necessary channel for popularizing the heritage of coryphaeus, but has not yet been developed. The urgency of the cinematographic reflection of artistic themes, in particular about the Tobilevych family, which gave Ukraine famous theatrical figures, about the creative duet and married couple M. Sadovsky and M. Zankovetskaya, about the father of the new Ukrainian theater M. Kropyvnytsky. The general, educational and unifying potential of the heritage of coryphaeus in the crystallization of the values of the Ukrainian nation is determined.