Anti-colonial pathos of Mykola Lazorskyi’s prose

Abstract

Literature of Ukrainian diaspora is a very rich and diverse phenomenon needing objective, systematic and complete scientific consideration. The purpose of the article is to analyze anti-colonial pathos in the prose of the original Ukrainian writer from Australia Mykola Lazorskyi whose works are visible against the background of the native and foreign literary process of the 20th century and deserve scientific attention.  The research is based on the general methods of analysis, synthesis, observation, selection and systematization of the material. The elements of the following methods are used in the article: cultural and historical (helps to highlight the special features of representation of Ukrainian national culture against the background of the anti-colonial struggle of different historical epochs in creative works of Mykola Lazorskyi), hermeneutic (ensures fluent and open interpretation of texts keeping perspective for new explanations), aesthetic (allows analyzing each text as a phenomenon of literature and art), intertextual (links between the writer’s prose and Ukrainian literature, foreign literary and folklore tradition). The works of Mykola Lazorskyi testify that he had delicate involvement into the past historical epochs and was interested in the fates of famous and little known figures who were engaged in the anti-colonial struggle of Ukrainians and served as a model for imitation in the realm of the national resistance and preservation of ethnic identity and national traditions. Mykola Lazorskyi’s prose enriches and widens our idea about the native and the world anti-colonial literature. The writer deals with the problem of multi-century aspiration of our ancestors to exist as a separate nation and gain a victory over aggressive neighbors. The author describes the history of the native land and the anti-colonial struggle of other nations. Russia is a symbol of very disgust and ominous forms of the colonialism in the writer’s works. Mykola Lazorskyi’s anti-colonial historical prose also sounds topically in our days when the Moscow horde wishes to destroy Ukraine and to conquer other European countries. These anti-colonial texts ring as a strict sentence to the last imperial forces on the planet. In perspective it is advisable to turn to Mykola Lazorskyi’s anti-colonial historical prose in comparison with the works of modern writers who represent anti-colonial discourse in Ukrainian and foreign literature of the early 21th century.