MYKHAYLO DRAY-KHMAR'S CHILDHOOD AND TEENAGE YEARS: RECONSTRUCTION BASED ON DOCUMENTS, MEMORIES, AND POETRY

Abstract

The aim. Using archival documents, memories of relatives, epistolary writings and poetry of Mykhailo Dray-Khmara, to reconstruct the period of his childhood, his studies at the Pavlo Galagan College. This is primarily about the need to present the family and social space in which the formation of the personality of the poet, translator, and scientist began.

The research methods. In order to clarify the declared problem, the following methods were used: cultural-historical and biographical.

The results. The article analyzes the childhood and adolescence of the neoclassical poet, literary critic Mykhailo Dray-Khmara, and clarifies the contexts of his poems about his own family, childhood memories of his mother's death, and studies at the Cherkasy’s Gymnasium. Based on archival data, information is provided about the family of the writer's father and mother, his family space in his native village. It is emphasized that this family environment became an important factor in the formation of both the poet's national self-consciousness and influenced the formation of his artistic worldview. It is demonstrated that the first literary exploration of Mikhail Drai about laughter in Gogol – a small study that could eventually be expanded into a serious literary study –  demonstrates his interest in artistic literature. Based on the memoirs of the poet's daughter Oksana Asher, microdetails of both early childhood and his teenage years are clarified. Microdetails of memories of childhood reveal the formation of a sacred worldview in the worldview of young Drai, which, with barely perceptible hints, will resonate in his poetic world. The general atmosphere in the Galagan College is analyzed in detail, which for Mykhailo Drai, as well as for another neoclassical poet – Pavlo Fylypovych, became an important stage of education and upbringing, making it possible for them to enter the University of St. Volodymyr.

The scientific novelty: for the first time the attention is focused on the childhood and youth world of the future artist – the neoclassical poet Mykhailo Dray-Khmara, archival documents about his parents are introduced into scientific circulation, which makes it possible to see the deep contexts of the formation of his poetic world, the first manifestations of the formation of the author's scientific worldview (on the example of his essay on the work of Mykola Gogol), interest in humanitarian studies.