Don Quixote as an intertextual topos of autobiographical motifs in 20th-centery Ukrainian poetry

Гальчук, Оксана Василівна (2025) Don Quixote as an intertextual topos of autobiographical motifs in 20th-centery Ukrainian poetry Закарпатські філологічні студії, 2 (43). pp. 238-246. ISSN 2663-4880, 2663-4899

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Abstract

The article explores the discourse surrounding the image of Don Quixote as a topos of autobiographical motifs in twentieth-century Ukrainian poetry. The aim of the study is to identify the specific features of authors’ interpretations of this traditional image and their connection to the historical, cultural, ideological, and aesthetic contexts of the poets’ creative work. The analysis focuses on the origins of the Ukrainian Don Quixote tradition, outlines the main tendencies in the interpretation of this image by poets from different literary schools of the twentieth century, and determines the specifics of integrating this traditional topos into the national literary space. It has been established that the tradition of artistic reinterpretation of Don Quixote as a precedent image within autobiographical motifs originates from Borys Hrinchenko’s poem Don Quixote. His emphasis on the motifs of service, solitude, and persistence despite apparent futility forms a poetic self-portrait of the artist as a moral leader striving to transform the ochlos (the unorganized crowd) into a nation. In the early modernist reception of the image (as in the poetry of Petro Karmansky, a representative of the Moloda Muza group), the dominant motifs are loneliness and disillusionment, correlating with the poet’s skepticism toward human progress and the general trend of demythologizing traditional cultural archetypes. For the Prague poets, the figure of Don Quixote appears primarily within the semantic field of self-definition, embodying the heroism of resistance to injustice and the motif of reckless courage (Yevhen Malaniuk), as well as the intimate autobiographical theme of unrequited love (Oleh Olzhych). In the work of Lina Kostenko, a representative of the Sixtiers generation, the motif of historical recurrence emerges: Don Quixote, deemed “mad” by the crowd, must once again fight the giants – both external and internal, the latter embodied by doubt. In this way, the poet foregrounds existential dimensions within the interpretation of traditional plot material. Therefore, in addition to the established satirical, comic, and tragic interpretations of Don Quixote in Ukrainian literature, a reflective and personal mode can be distinguished – one that expands the semantic field of the image toward the autobiographical, functioning as an authorial mask or a generational “portrait” to which the poet belongs.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Don Quixote; intertext; artistic topos; autobiographical motif; interpretation; symbol; anthropology
Subjects:	Статті у періодичних виданнях > Фахові (входять до переліку фахових, затверджений МОН)
Divisions:	Факультет української філології, культури і мистецтва > Кафедра світової літератури
Depositing User:	професор Оксана Гальчук
Date Deposited:	02 Jan 2026 11:02
Last Modified:	02 Jan 2026 11:02
URI:	https://elibrary.kubg.edu.ua/id/eprint/55803

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