Українська проблематика ХХ століття у творчій спадщині американського письменника Аскольда Мельничука

Methodological basis of the research have to be chosen in accordance with the specific features of the material under analysis and usage of the comparative-historical, typological, genetic, biographical, structural-narrative and systemically complex methods. The results obtained with their help are interpreted.

The analysis of the Askold Melnyczuk's essay “Roman Coins, Scythian Potteru” and the novella “The Tree of Light” within the problem of the Ukrainian emigrants' adaptation to new conditions in the comparative discourse generally and the typological correspondences of the short story “The Tree of Light” to such short stories as “Zelig” by Benjamin Rosenblatt and “My Dead Brother Comes to America” by Alexander Godin in particular is made thoroughly.

The problem of the place of the artist in the community in the short story “The Tree of Light” by Askold Melnyczuk and short stories of such Ukrainian writers as Valeriy Shevchuk under the title of “Postril” and Valentine Tarnavsky under the title of “The Tree of Life” is analyzed. The short stories and novellas of such Ukrainian artists as Mykhailo Kotsubynsky, Hryhir Tyutyunnyk, and Ulas Samchuk are taken into account.

Askold Melnyczuk is a representative of the Ukrainian branch of the American multiculturalism. He is a translator, critic, and poet. The American writer is known thanks to his novels in Ukrainian theme, that is “What Is Told” and “Ambassador of the Dead”. The reception of the literary method of a famous writer G. G. Marquez and literary characteristics of his novel “Hundred Years of Solitude” in the Askold Melnyczuk's novel “What Is Told” is deeply investigated. The typological correspondences are expressed by the way of the problem standing - the problem of remembering of the historical past events.

The specific features of the Ukrainian translation of the novel “What Is Told” in comparison with its original are investigated firstly on literary and linguistic levels. The analysis shows a great amount of advantages and disadvantages in the translation. The translator was able to transfer the national spirit of the novel but ruined the writer's style by usage of a great amount of phraseology units and Ukrainian words.

The main problem to be touched in the second novel “Ambassador of the Dead” is the problem of keeping own Self-Identity, the Ukrainian emigrant's Self-Identity in the foreign community under the conditions of Americans' misunderstanding those people who came to the USA from other countries. Comparative-typological coincidences of the novel “Ambassador of the Dead” by Askold Melnyczuk, and novella “Simple Tale” by Claire Messud and novel “On the Firmer Land” by Ulas Samchuk are investigated from the thematic and poetical peculiarities perspective.

The novel “Ambassador of the Dead” by Askold Melnyczuk and novella “Simple Tale” by Claire Messud underline the concept of the Ukrainian identity as a main characteristic. The national paradigm of the emigrant's struggle for being in the foreign community is a main problem in both forms of fiction.

The philosophy of existentialism made a great influence on the literary activity of such writers as Askold Melnyczuk and Ulas Samchuk. The existence of the Ukrainian human being as a member of the foreign community is analyzed from the similar themes and motifs of the Ukrainian problem perspective.

The narrative structure, the process of creation of every kind of fiction by Askold Melnyczuk, the character of transforming images into narrative are identified in the given thesis.

Key words: multiculturalism, context, Self-Identity, existential solitude, retrospection, text structure, interpretation, postmodernism.