Volodymyr Vynnychenko’s philosophical and aesthetic views: the experience of French existentialism

Sartre once created the theory of “engaged literature”, designed to be socially active. At the same time, he claimed that a man was a “senseless passion.”. Sartre argued that the novelist should not be a “God” for his characters and expressed this thought in a polemical article “Mr Francois Moriac and his Freedom” (1939), that is, possess an omnipresence that allows him to change the point without hindrance. Criticizing the artist's aesthetic position as a “privileged observer” and believing that relativity is a law not only for the physical but also for the artistic world, Sartre links the character's vitality with his freedom.

Vynnychenko considered life a novel written extremely skillfully: “There is the idea of the novel of my life. Look through the entire strip of being . and fix it as I see it now. If the Americans had ordered me this work, it would have been amount of text for ten volumes, I guess. Not my small existencial novel, but the Great Life of those great national collectives, among which my existencial novel was a thread” [Винниченко, 2021a, p. 321].

The ideal opportunity for Camus is to realize art as a “great mime” of life. They are “.the art of form and color, in which reigns the description in his greatness, that is more close to the essence of life, than the whole Library” [Camus, 1968, pp. 133-134]. Vynnychenko expressed a similar view on painting: “The art of painting does not require special intellectual creativity. The Master can be a smart, intellectually creative person and not be able to draw even a column. And, on the contrary, being a completely intellectual fool one can paint a large amount of brilliant paintings” [Винниченко, 2021b, p. 598].

Camus and Vynnychenko did not have any detailed aesthetic considerations about the nature of various types of art. They are considered and interpreted only in the light of a general philosophical vision. For example, the great Italian master of painting describes Camus in his essay “The Desert” as a “novelist of the body”, and as “the only given man's truth” who recognizes the body placed at the moment of modern times: “...they work in that beautiful and worthless matter, called modern. Moreover, the present expresses itself in gesture. At the price of hope, they have kicked out permanently of these faces, frozen in their eternal lines, in the curse of the spirit. The body knows no hope. It knows only the blows of blood” [Camus, 1967, pp. 58, 59]. Vynnychenko expressed the opinion about the “presence of primitiveness in the spirit of the old Italian masters”, appreciating his own successes in painting [Винниченко, 2021b, p. 232].

Sartre and Camus deny the social determinism of ethical norms but say that they have an individualistic origin, in contrast to Vynnychenko. Internal freedom is the basis of existentialist morality. A person must find resistance in himself; he can rely only on himself, realizing the need to fight the absurdity and futility of this attempt.

Camus realised that the absurd comes into the World with a Man. It cannot be rid of, so that a person cannot escape from it; moreover, one is obliged to treat it as the main fact of being and to form his life priorities already in view of it. Since 1930, Camus began to suffer from tuberculosis, and the disease itself has become a factor that largely shaped his existentialist worldview. The writer thinks a lot about death; he does not believe in soul's immortality and wants to prove that the one who was happy in life is capable of a “happy death”.

Vynnychenko's approach to portraying the drama of human existence in a disharmonious, absurd world based on dictatorship and terror is similar to the conceptual principles of Sartre and Camus. Deciphering the thematic codes of the “The New Commandment” (1947) is the author's attempt to understand the tragic disarrangement of human life, among which the obsessive nonfreedom of the totalitarian system is singled out. He used to interpret the antagonism of the Peace and War, Life and Death in the novel “Words for you, Stalin!” (1950). It should be noted that the existential motives of the alienation of the individual, the absurdity of the world, and the “boundary situations” form these codes that are about decoding by Vynnychenko.

Realizing the absurdity of existence in the totalitarian world, keenly experiencing their doom to suffering and disappointment in communist ideals, the characters of the “New Commandment” and “Words for you, Stalin!” are trying to make their choice after all. Dissatisfaction with the existing situation and the lack of fullness of existence causes a feeling of “abandonment” in this imperfect reality, which is common for J.-P. Sartre's character.

The diary notes show that the intention of the Ukrainian artist to write “The Word is yours, Stalin!” (1950) was imbued with existential feelings of uncertainty and hesitation in the correctness of his plan: “The emergence of thought: To write the novel “The cry to humanity”. My goal is to reveal the whole philosophical essence of Bolshevism-Stalinism in living images, to shout on the whole planet a cry of caution and a call to preventive means against a terrible disease that has covered one sixth of the planet and threatens to capture all of it. But the publication of such a thing is a speech on the reverse of the struggle with this phenomenon, that is, pre-conviction of oneself to death. Do I have the right to pay such a Price for the cry of caution, which may not reach that poor humanity?” [Винниченко, 2021b, p. 167-168].

Question of the government's attack on the existential self of man through a series of nationally discriminated prohibitions” is contained in the novel “The Word is yours, Stalin!” [Бежнар, 2004, p. 13]. According to the Ukrainian writer, deprivation of metaphysical freedom increases the fear of losing physical freedom, which turns a person into an obedient corporal and intellectual machine, a mechanism in the hands of the Soviet authorities. It makes human life a sort of complete horror film. This is clearly and convincingly illustrated by the life of the Ivanenko family, whose members represent the entire spectrum of Soviet society. Stepan Ivanenko is a special-purpose official deputy of the Main Council. He used to address his friend, a member of the Political Bureau, the Ninth, with the program of transformation of society on the basis of labour collectocracy, organized “not by coercion, but by goodwill” [Винниченко, 1971, p. 156]. According to Camus, “only voluntary work must be worthy” [Camus, 1962, p. 122]. The French thinker proposes to reverse the classical political economy formula, like the Ukrainian one, and both of them suggest perceiving work as a result of joyful activity voluntarily, which should bring pleasure.

Vynnychenko demonstrates the limitation of individual space in a totalitarian society, which provokes the formation of a new type of man, called collective-member, human-mass, the main feature of which, according to H. Arendt, “lack of brutality and backwardness, caused by its isolation and lack of normal social relations” [Арендт, 2002, p. 366]. The absurdity of the existence of new people in a totalitarian society will be realised by automatically practising selfdefence reactions such as chanting, exalting, praising, enthusiasm, pretending, etc.

Camus, Sartre and Vynnychenko sought to turn artistic creativity into a testing ground for philosophical experiments based on the concept of absurdity. If Sartre, in the novel “Nausea”, shows the work of art as “the defeat of the absurd”, then Camus finds creativity as a common absurd phenomenon as everything in the world. Sartre adores a Human. Let a Man be unhappy and imperfect, but a Human becomes God's patron through action, on the basis of choice, creating meaning and values. At the end of his life, Vynnychenko discovered what creativity and genius are for himself: “Isn't this the ability of the human mind to seek and compose new combinations of existing facts? So, the genius is not above all the ability and even the need for the disposition of the search, observation, combination, making conclusions” [Винниченко, 2021b, 192].

Nature took a prominent place in the existentialist texture. This is a gloomy, hostile force, a genetive absolute, absurd for Sartre. On the contrary, nature is a beautiful deity, but, unfortunately, no matter the fate of the person in Camus' writings. Although the attitude to nature in Sartre and Camus is quite the opposite, both come to the end of the opposition of consciousness and matter. In his turn, Vynnychenko made a paradoxical statement in June 1928. Vynnychenko loved especially the nature of Ukraine, like Sartre, finding the essence of the World in nature: “Nature is a constant, systematic killer. Murder is its basic law and condition for the existence of living beings” [Винниченко, 1980, p. 478]. At the same time, a Man appears majestically simple and united with nature in the philosophical constructions of Camus and Vynnychenko. They do not live in nature, but in a tinner world of themselves. Nevertheless, the paradox is that a person in them finds his place in the Universe, rising into the pose of a rebel against the natural order of things.

The essential point in building a typological chain between Sartre, Camus, and Vynnychenko is the problem of philosophizing. There are many thinkers who find it difficult to relate to any one direction or stream of philosophical thought. They remain on their own, not imitating anyone, entering into an endless dispute with everyone. It is a suitable place in the History of Art for such thinkers as Ukrainian and French artists. Fate does not spoil them as a rule because their life is full of drama. They do not become their own in the capitalist or socialist world, being “outsiders” or “strangers”, carrying out some “dangerous” ideas, points of view and moods. Declaring oneself as moralists meant not only contempt for contemporary philosophy but also personal courage to stand up for human dignity without trying to teach anything. At the same time, Camus and Vynnychenko are wise teachers, spokesmen of destructive doubt. Defining the crisis of universal values, Camus and Vynnychenko called for the formation of universal human consciousness, society and culture based on morality. Their appeal to morality meant an awareness of the lack of values in modern philosophy, history, and politics, since polar opposite systems could only lead to a general catastrophe.

Vynnychenko and Camus developed a synthesis of philosophy and literature, treatise and novel in their creativity. Camus is limited to what he calls, through an awareness of the absurd existence, in the “Myth of Sisyphus” to make the unfortunate happy. However, the “Myth...”, “ The Plague”, as well as the “Leprosarium” and the “Eternal Imperative” or “New Commandment”, these novels have become texts that mobilize to fight against the existing of Evil, for protecting Freedom and Independence.

Vynnychenko and Camus consider philosophizing as a way of understanding the meaning and relationship between Existence and Being. At the same time, only real Art is a direction to act for designing a meet of a Man with Nature and the World in their both opinion. Only this action makes Man realise all his options as a practically acting being. Vynnychenko's longing for objective, practical activity results in a special understanding of the relationship between Existence and Art. He believes that “politics must also be expanded into broader activities, into work for the Happiness of humanity. Art, literature, science, creation of value-scientists, searching for ways of realization of human dreams, organization of own life, making it a daily joyful, useful process make us humans after all. To feel on each piece of the Earth cheerful and active is the best way to clean your life from the poison of Evil and pessimism” [Винниченко, 2010, p. 322].

Vynnychenko interprets the Absurd as Discordism. He is constantly looking for ways to overcome this condition. Happiness is “the feeling of fullness of harmony of all powers, the desire to live and in the very process of life to have the highest exhaustive satisfaction”, in his opinion [Винниченко, 1980, p. 288]. To achieve Higher Internal Harmony, working on their improvement in the Inner World is necessary. There are many ways to achieve happiness: “As more difficult life is, so more factors affect the harmony of human's power, but much more difficult it becomes happiness”. The main thing is that they are adjusted by the laws of “equilibrium”: “Wealth, Glory, Health, Love, Reason, etc. in themselves (even together) will not lead to happiness if they are not coordinated among themselves” [Винниченко, 1980, p. 289].

Heidegger saw only one possibility to change human existence it is the Way to Death. Jaspers tried to give human existence certain possibilities back through the comprehension of the Secret Meaning of Transcendence, but Sartre and Camus denied any meaning of human existence, declaring everything absurd is, Vynnychenko considers the existential act as a sound solution. A person is not passive but an active creature, according to the understanding of the Ukrainian thinker. It must be considered, therefore, that, having a choice made, one must remain faithful to it. “Give the opportunity to know the True Human Being to a few dozen of poor Ivans, at least. Let them sow the seeds of Faith in the possibility of happiness on Earth. Who can tell me the purpose of the individual life of Ivans?" [Винниченко, 2021a, pp. 153-154].

Nevertheless, a Fateful Choice is not the only possible choice. It is the Choice of Yourself, of the Own Essence, which is realized in a leap from the Past to the Future. It is that man, making his own choice in this sense, he constitutes himself as a Personality... Thus, the choice of Man is based on opportunity, and He is the basis of the Human constitution as an individual. The choice is for Vynnychenko. It is back-or-white always: Fascism or Bolshevism, Stalin or Hitler, concentration camps or the USSR, etc.

Vynnychenko considered responsibility as one of the strongest manifestations of the “social instinct” and the range of use of this concept is quite wide for him. On the one hand, he thought like Sartre: “Fate is a favourite topic from ancient times. It often intercedes for God and performs his unpleasant functions. often we use fate to cover our nothingness and lack of freedom. Having placed the responsibility on it, we allow ourselves to suck up the mud of our inertia [Винниченко, 2010, p. 547]. On the other hand, he concluded: “People must be responsible for all during their lives: for their parents or other citizens, or God, Homeland, and also themselves” [Винниченко, 2021a, p. 310]. At the same time, the conclusions of the Ukrainian thinker, in fact, were typically existentialistic. “When a general calculation of life is made, all other accounts lose all weight. When a person is drawn to responsibility for his own life, every other responsibility to people has neither interest nor fear for him” [Винниченко, 2021a, p. 11]. At the same time, Vynnychenko considered the responsibility of the state to its citizens very important, bearing in mind, in particular, its absence, which brought France to the catastrophe of 1940.

What are the causes and nature of ontological dualism common to Sartre, Camus and Vynnychenko? If Sartre's theory, equipped with a special philosophical terminology, is realized in an exclusively theoretical plane, then in Camus' and Vynnychenko's texts, it is embodied in free, figurative reasoning. They do not encrypt the concrete-sensual reality of nature in the abstraction of “being-in-itself” or man in all the diversity of his real faces things in the category of “being-for-oneself”. If, through the entire ontological system, Sartre passes a dualistic split between “being-in-itself” and “being-for-oneself”, then Camus and Vynnychenko create the central antithesis of Nature and Man.

The opposition of Matter and Consciousness, Nature and Man, are preceded by the experience of their fusion in the works of Sartre, Camus and Vynnychenko. Sartre's immersion experience in the Existence of the Natural Things is more metaphysical in his “Nausea”, than ever. His character seeks a way to be the “transphenomenal” in the World. However, Camus and Vynnychenko merging with nature deal with a return to a happy state of “cosmic” life. In contrast to the gloomy nausea experience of the Sartres' Rokanten, Joy, Delight, and Intoxication reigns here. The fusion of Man with nature is possible when it dissolves in its elements and becomes an equal part of the Whole. Concordism can be fully interpreted by Vynnychenko as being in a broad sense in this frame: “Nothing is more difficult, more terrible, immoral and unbearable than a difference with Oneself, as self-condemnation, as self-contempt, as dishonesty with oneself” [Винниченко, 2010, p. 143].

The author of “Concordia” notes that his concept of equilibrium is already at the physiological level, which makes any dictatorship impossible. The fullness and integrity of being are the attributes of a happy existence. However, unlike everything that exists, the Man is endowed with consciousness. He is the only one, as Vynnychenko considers, aware of the fact of her mortality and longs to know the meaning of purpose. Nature does not answer the questions of concern to a Man, so a Man stands in the pose of a rebel with the awakening of consciousness. Indifference, mysterious silence, and dark impermeability of nature contrast Man's passion for clarity, clarification of the meaning of being, and protest against the tragic lack of deathly understanding.

According to Camus, absurd is a dissociation of Man with Nature. He has one but adequate definition for it: “Absurd is a sin without God's presence. It means an original sin, what use to fracture Man and Nature forever. Having fallen into sin, “Me” is excommunicated from its own Nature forever, which is the main drama of human existence.” Nevertheless, Vynnychenko explains the misfortune and disease caused by the lack of balance. The only difference between illness and misfortune is that the imbalance can be not only physical but also spiritual in the latter case. A disorder of mental state is also a disease that the Ukrainian thinker calls discordism, which is an “invisible spiritual leprosy” at the very end and in the artistic, creative version, which becomes expected in the modern world. Understanding the tragedy of Human Destiny as a catastrophic break with Nature is the main focus of the thoughts of Camus and Vynnychenko and their result of theoretical writings. Their existentialism description is based on despair caused by the essential greatness of the Personality. Camus and Vynnychenko's appeal to morality meant the realization of modern politics since polar opposite systems could lead to a general catastrophe of mankind, not only the collapse of Philosophy and History. In addition, it fits fully with the paradigm of existentialism.

Vynnychenko believes that art is an independent existence. A return to Nature is the basis of understanding art in contrast to Heidegger and Jaspers, who believed that although the philosopher and artist aspire to the same thing to comprehend the meaning of being this can be achieved not by a philosopher but by an artist, if he has not yet become a philosopher, and his art has elements of it. The subject of returning to Nature is a “pure subject”, thanks to which Nature returns to itself: “Concordia gives us great wealth. It connects us with Nature. It is the source of constant Joy, Fullness, Heaviness and Happiness of Life... Even Death becomes not a terrible, disgusting crasher, but a loving, compassionate, mysterious, but faithful friend who will lead you not into a nightmare, but into somewhere new, interesting afterlife, or in some eternal rest of non-existence. under the influence of concordism” [Винниченко, 2021a, p. 136].

Vynnychenko uses the category of “being” in concrete and historical forms of the existence in society, for which “life is a novel made with extraordinary artistic ability. It is sometimes good for slowly reading, sometimes have to be quickly “eaten”, sometimes it is going to be taking to account with boredom, sometimes is needed to agree with it with a hot enthusiasm. There is a new page of this great Everyday Book. Life is good; perhaps, it is valuable even for knowing what will happen next, what kind of events, what sort of intrigues, what a new surprises, the brilliant author has prepared, whether heavy or joyful. Moreover, when you participate, you want to know what role you have to play next” [Винниченко, 2021a, p. 381].

The social practice of both capitalist and socialist societies discredited the idea of existentialists as a sphere of alienation and dehumanization of the individual activity of the first half of the 20th century. So, what would be next? Existentialism is used to determine a person out of society, a person as it is in general. Nature becomes, in Vynnychenkos' laboratory of metaphysical thoughts, in his “Atelier of Happiness”, the only opposition to consciousness, which allows it to establish oneself in the material world. The conflict of matter and consciousness, Nature and Man was essential for both writers-thinkers.

The same unexpected personal meaning acquires the category of historicity, which the philosopher considers a significant characteristic of his philosophical system. Historicity is an extrahistorical humus, a broadcast of the efforts of individual thinkers, which imposes the burden of responsibility on all participants. “The cognitive, philosophical history of humanity is a kind of meaningless game. At first, humanity has filled itself with a huge pile of metaphysics sand ... And all the modern progressive people produce new ideas to throw off most of that sand. Progress will begin only when humanity is completely out of all that sand” [Винниченко, 2010, p. 76].

Human life is seen as an age-old metaphysical drama in existentialism. The story is deeply tragic: Birth means Death. The main antagonist characters are Man and World. In addition, only a constant sharp awareness can help to escape from the dulling standard of life, of their mortal destiny, to reach the “truly” being. Memento mori is the basic order of existential philosophers, which Camus especially often mentions. Similar considerations about the nature of death, the attitude of a person to it are also found on the pages of Vynnychenko's diary. “Hopelessness is a completely absurd concept, but generally accepted. There is no hopelessness in Nature, and it could not be at all. Hopelessness appears in pair with the belief in immutability, a stable state of Things. However, nothing is unchanging in the human world. To lose hope is to lose faith in the laws of nature and become superstitious. We often fail to reach our goal only because we lose hope. We so hardly believe in the necessity and inevitability of death; it would be strange when we do not die from it. Maybe immortality does not exist on the earth only because we do not believe in it” [Винниченко, 2021a, pp. 21-22].

The anthropological principle is essentially characteristic of the specifical national tradition of French philosophy, in which the “purely speculative movement” (Descartes, Malebranche) was less consistent with the mentality of the French, who were more willing to read Rabelais and Montagne. Here, one could also refer to the history of Ukrainian philosophical thought (conventionally from Skovoroda through Franko and Lesya Ukrainka to Vynnychenko), which is also distinguished by a similar type of philosophizing. It is characterized primarily by an orientation toward a person, taken in the immediate life context, a person who faces the eternal problems of life, death, evil, relationships with others, etc. The special substance of such philosophizing, which is free from scientific standards, gave rise to particular genre forms, such as Essay, Aphorism, Portrait, Dialog, Drama and Novel. Many Ukrainian researchers consider existentialism to be the basis of Ukrainian philosophy, emphasizing its existential-corkcentric and personalistic orientation.

Vynnychenko belongs to those thinkers who go beyond the boundaries of traditional philosophy to comprehend the broader meaning of all spiritual culture in their works. He went on to say that he developed the ideas of A. Schopenhauer, F. Nietzsche, A. Bergson, and the Theosophical theory of R. Steiner by aiming to open to man prospects of further development, to give his existence meaning, to point to him at certain positive values, that is, to overcome the extremes of German and French existentialism and to design a positive philosophical platform.

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Volodymyr Vynnychenko's philosophical and aesthetic views: the experience of French existentialism

Galyna M. Syvachenko, Shevchenko Institute of Literature, The National Academy of Science of Ukraine (Ukraine)

Antonina V. Anistratenko, Bukovinian State Medical University (Ukraine).

The relevance of the proposed research is determined by the reviving the interest of modern literary studies of the figure of Volodymyr Vynnychenko, determining the place of his creativity in the context of European modernism, the ambiguity of assessments of this phenomenon in the context of Ukrainian fine literature.

The article examines Volodymyr Vynnychenko's novels in the discourse of French Existentialism. Attention is focused on outlining the similarities and differences between J.-P. Sartre, A. Camus and V. Vynnychenko's worldviews and aesthetic views.

The origins of the existentialist method in the work of the Ukrainian emigre writer and its inclusion in the discourse of French atheistic of Existentialism are also analysed, and some conclusions of the "Mougins" cycle of Vynnychenko's works are investigated using summarized prospects for its study in a broad and its European context is also outlined.

The authors examine the forms and methods of aesthetic refraction of the basic concepts of existentialism (absurdity, rebellion, freedom, choice, and relationships at the level "I the Other"). The purpose of the work and the tasks involve analyzing the philosophical and artistic texts of Vynychenko in the discourse of French existentialism, as well as revealing the main philosophical ideas and functions of the novels of the Ukrainian writer, consistent with the creative guidelines of J.-P. Sartre and A. Camus. The set of goals determines the need for the use of hermeneutic (analysis of artistic texts), historical-literary, comparative-typological (posing and solving a number of literary problems in the context of equal national literature, and biographical (using diary entries) research methods.

The problem is determining the place of ideology in the context of French existentialism and the "Mougins'" cycle of Vynnychenko's works, was raised in literary studies as early as the 70s of the last century, in particular by diaspora researchers S. Naumovych and L. Zaleska-Onyshkevych, who tried to show the priority of Vynnychenko's writing compared to Sartre and Camus.

The problem of existentialism as a philosophical direction was considered in the late 1940s among the members of the Artistic Ukrainian Movement, attempting to formulate the concept of "Ukrainian existentialism". The Ukrainian researcher Ya. Kotets includes diaspora representatives 70 years later in the article "The Formula of Ukrainian Existentialism" (2021). There are several Ukrainian and Soviet writers who produce some existential ideas and elements of existential interpretation of human life, but they should not be called conscious writers-existentialists.

Among modern Ukrainian works need to name "Existentialist philosophy. Traditions and perspectives" by S. Raida (2009), as well as the comparative study "Ukrainian version of artistic existentialism: B.I. Antonych, V. Svidzinsky, T. Osmachka in the European context" (2020) by H. Tokman, where is introduced the concept of "artistic existentialism".

The critical optics of the research make it possible to combine the historical and philosophical specificity of the interwar twenty years and the post-war period, on which are built the works of Vynnychenko, Sartre and Camus. It is an attempt to show the originality of the philosophical and aesthetic views of the emigrant Vynnychenko in the paradigm of French existentialism, to demonstrate the similarity of the Ukrainian type of philosophizing (from Skovoroda, Franko, Lesya Ukrainka to Vynnychenko), to analyze his characteristic orientation towards a person who faces the eternal problems of life, death, and evil. Such non-scientific philosophizing gave birth to special genre forms: essay, aphorism, portrait, dialogue, drama, and novel, which can be found in V.Vynnychenko's literary work. Vynnychenko belongs to those thinkers who went beyond the boundaries of traditional philosophy in order to comprehend the broader meaning of the entire spiritual culture, developing the ideas of A. Schopenhauer, F. Nietzsche, A. Bergson, the theosophical theory of R. Steiner, in their writings. Vynnychenko set himself the goal of revealing prospects for further development to man, to give meaning to its existence, to point it to certain positive values, that is, to overcome the extremes of German and French existentialism and develop a positive philosophical platform.

Key words: European Modernism, French Existentialism, absurdity, Rebellion, Choice, Concocridism, Sartre, Camus, Vynnychenko.