Hryhorii Kvitka and Literature for Peasants

Abstract

The creative activity of H. Kvitka is marked by special attention to Ukrainian folk life. It is not surprising that he was interested in the idea of writing a special book specifically for folk education.

The purpose of the article is to reveal the idea of this book and to understand the practical implementation of the author's instructive thoughts.

The writer did not come to the creation of such a book immediately. This decision was preceded by public activity, in particular in the educational sphere. Confidence was added by the favorable reviews of readers for his sentimental works on folk life. The acquired public experience, and especially literary successes, inspired H. Kvitka to a risky literary and at the same time educational experiment. At first, he planned not one work, but a whole series of books for the people. At the same time, he carefully thought out all the details of the new project. In a special announcement, he published an analysis of the reading capabilities of the desired target group. This analysis proved that peasants usually come across works that are not very useful from an educational point of view and are not very clear in language and presentation (“in bookish style”). The author’s experiment was aimed at taking into account and correcting the shortcomings: his book is written in Ukrainian, the instruction is presented taking into account the receptive capabilities of the popular audience – as a stylized oral address to the peasant community. The presentation of thoughts sometimes resembles a sermon: sometimes it refers to the evangelical context, sometimes it is full of instructive examples from life.

The series of books planned by the author was actually limited to one edition. This fact suggests that the reaction of readers could have disappointed the author, which is why he decided to reconsider his previous plan. The question of why this book did not bring the expected success and how the writer’s experience affected subsequent literature for public education may be the subject of a separate study.