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| '''Ivan Petrovych Kotlyarevsky''' ({{lang-uk|Іван Петрович Котляревський}}) (b. {{OldStyleDate|9 September|1769|29 August}}, ], ] - |
'''Ivan Petrovych Kotlyarevsky''' ({{lang-uk|Іван Петрович Котляревський}}) (b. {{OldStyleDate|9 September|1769|29 August}}, ], ] - d. {{OldStyleDate|10 November|1838|29 October}}, Poltava), was a ] writer, poet and a playwright widely regarded to have started the modern ]. His ] poem Eneyida (Енеїда) (]), is considered to be the first literary work published in the modern ]. His two plays, also living classics, ''Natalka-Poltavka'' (Natalka from ]) and ''Moskal'-Charivnyk'' (The 'Moscal'-Sorcerer) have started the modern development of Ukrainian theater and opera. | ||
| ⚫ | ] | ||
| The ] in the 18th century was used mostly by peasants and petty bourgeois and though it was in no danger of extinction, to become a language of belle-lettres, philosophy and science, it had to be hoisted from the level of the everyday to the level of the sublime. There was also an increasing pressure on the part of the Russian Imperial authorities to do away with the ] altogether. Naturally enough, for quite a while there was no one who would risk to use the language of the lower classes for expressing refined feelings of polite literature (scholarly works were written either in ] or ]. It was only at the end of the 18th century that a breakthrough came. Ivan Kotlyarevsky who for his own diversion, wrote an epic poem, a burlesque in Ukrainian, based on Vergil’s ], was prevailed upon by his friends to whom he read his poem, to publish it. He was reluctant to do it but when finally its shortened version was released in print in 1794, it was an immediate success. The book, Eneyida, turned out to be the first literary work published in the vernacular Ukrainian, becoming an undying classic of Ukrainian literature. | |||
| ⚫ | The first edition of Kotlyarevsky’s Eneyida: ] | ||
| Ivan P. Kotlyarevsky was born into the family of a small landowner of noble extraction, in the town of Poltava, in 1769. His primary education was provided by a local sexton and psalm-reader. Later he studied at the Poltava seminary. Upon graduation, he had a succession of jobs which included teaching, and later he went into military service. In 1806, he even took part in a military expedition against Turkey, and two years later he retired from the army in the rank of staff-captain. His retirement from the army did not mean his retirement from a civilian career. He was a warden and administrator of an establishment for educating children of impoverished noblemen, of a charity hospital, a member of Societies of lovers and promoters of belles-lettres. He was known to have joined a Freemasons’ lodge. And he never stopped writing. His plays, among them Natalka-Poltavka, another classic of Ukrainian literature, were at the start of the Ukrainian national theatre. | |||
| Kotlyarevsky died in ] in 1838. The full version of Eneyida was published posthumously, in 1842. | |||
| Kotlyarevsky’s Eneyida has been called “an encyclopaedia of Ukrainian life” of the 18th century by recent historians of Ukrainian literature. Basically, it is a satirical work which through the adventures of Enei (Aeneas) who is portrayed as a daring and venturesome Cossack, and of his Cossack comrades, presents a wide panorama of everyday life, aspirations, beliefs of the 18th century. As Vergil’s Aeneas was the prototype of the Roman life, Kotlyarevsky’s Enei was the prototype of the Ukrainian life of the 18th century. The Ukrainian upper classes were well-versed in classical Roman and Greek literature and their education allowed them to read the classics in the original Latin and Greek. The story of Aeneas as told by Vergil was well known and the images of gods and goddesses, kings and queens, Trojans and inhabitants of Latium were skilfully used by Kotlyarevsky to satirically depict various walks of Ukrainian society. Kotlyarevsky’s language is very rich and juicy, full of Ukrainian idioms, expressions and words which have been preserved thanks to their having been used in the poem. The publishers of the first edition of the poem supplemented it with a short glossary of words and expressions and the third edition of 1842 already had a glossary which had been compiled by Kotlyarevsky himself and included more than fifteen hundred words and expressions. Sparkling humour of the poem has its roots in the folk humour of the times when it was written but it has hardly lost any of its witty potential to make people laugh two centuries later. Kotlyarevsky’s Eneyida is not a dead classic on a dusty shelf but a piece of writing which is very much alive and enjoyed. | |||
| Photographs show scenes from Eneyida, staged at the Franko National Drama Theater. ] ] | |||
| Article written by Vira Sulyma, head of a department of Ukraine’s Literature Museum + | |||
| Photos by Yuri Buslenko | |||
| ==References== | ==References== | ||
Revision as of 22:25, 22 October 2005
| Ivan Kotliarevsky |
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Ivan Petrovych Kotlyarevsky (Template:Lang-uk) (b. 9 September [O.S. 29 August] 1769, 1769, Poltava - d. 10 November [O.S. 29 October] 1838, Poltava), was a Ukrainian writer, poet and a playwright widely regarded to have started the modern Ukrainian literature. His epic-style poem Eneyida (Енеїда) (1794), is considered to be the first literary work published in the modern Ukrainian. His two plays, also living classics, Natalka-Poltavka (Natalka from Poltava) and Moskal'-Charivnyk (The 'Moscal'-Sorcerer) have started the modern development of Ukrainian theater and opera.
The Ukrainian language in the 18th century was used mostly by peasants and petty bourgeois and though it was in no danger of extinction, to become a language of belle-lettres, philosophy and science, it had to be hoisted from the level of the everyday to the level of the sublime. There was also an increasing pressure on the part of the Russian Imperial authorities to do away with the Ukrainian language altogether. Naturally enough, for quite a while there was no one who would risk to use the language of the lower classes for expressing refined feelings of polite literature (scholarly works were written either in Old Slavonic or Latin. It was only at the end of the 18th century that a breakthrough came. Ivan Kotlyarevsky who for his own diversion, wrote an epic poem, a burlesque in Ukrainian, based on Vergil’s Aeneid, was prevailed upon by his friends to whom he read his poem, to publish it. He was reluctant to do it but when finally its shortened version was released in print in 1794, it was an immediate success. The book, Eneyida, turned out to be the first literary work published in the vernacular Ukrainian, becoming an undying classic of Ukrainian literature.
The first edition of Kotlyarevsky’s Eneyida: 
Ivan P. Kotlyarevsky was born into the family of a small landowner of noble extraction, in the town of Poltava, in 1769. His primary education was provided by a local sexton and psalm-reader. Later he studied at the Poltava seminary. Upon graduation, he had a succession of jobs which included teaching, and later he went into military service. In 1806, he even took part in a military expedition against Turkey, and two years later he retired from the army in the rank of staff-captain. His retirement from the army did not mean his retirement from a civilian career. He was a warden and administrator of an establishment for educating children of impoverished noblemen, of a charity hospital, a member of Societies of lovers and promoters of belles-lettres. He was known to have joined a Freemasons’ lodge. And he never stopped writing. His plays, among them Natalka-Poltavka, another classic of Ukrainian literature, were at the start of the Ukrainian national theatre.
Kotlyarevsky died in Poltava in 1838. The full version of Eneyida was published posthumously, in 1842.
Kotlyarevsky’s Eneyida has been called “an encyclopaedia of Ukrainian life” of the 18th century by recent historians of Ukrainian literature. Basically, it is a satirical work which through the adventures of Enei (Aeneas) who is portrayed as a daring and venturesome Cossack, and of his Cossack comrades, presents a wide panorama of everyday life, aspirations, beliefs of the 18th century. As Vergil’s Aeneas was the prototype of the Roman life, Kotlyarevsky’s Enei was the prototype of the Ukrainian life of the 18th century. The Ukrainian upper classes were well-versed in classical Roman and Greek literature and their education allowed them to read the classics in the original Latin and Greek. The story of Aeneas as told by Vergil was well known and the images of gods and goddesses, kings and queens, Trojans and inhabitants of Latium were skilfully used by Kotlyarevsky to satirically depict various walks of Ukrainian society. Kotlyarevsky’s language is very rich and juicy, full of Ukrainian idioms, expressions and words which have been preserved thanks to their having been used in the poem. The publishers of the first edition of the poem supplemented it with a short glossary of words and expressions and the third edition of 1842 already had a glossary which had been compiled by Kotlyarevsky himself and included more than fifteen hundred words and expressions. Sparkling humour of the poem has its roots in the folk humour of the times when it was written but it has hardly lost any of its witty potential to make people laugh two centuries later. Kotlyarevsky’s Eneyida is not a dead classic on a dusty shelf but a piece of writing which is very much alive and enjoyed.
Photographs show scenes from Eneyida, staged at the Franko National Drama Theater. File:Eneyida Franko National Drama1.jpg File:Eneyida Franko National Drama2.jpg
Article written by Vira Sulyma, head of a department of Ukraine’s Literature Museum +
Photos by Yuri Buslenko
References
- Ivan Kotlyarevsky in Encyclopedia Britannica
- Eneyida - a living classic of Ukrainian literature in Welcome to Ukraine, 1999, 1
- Ivan Kotliarevsky in Encyclopedia of Ukraine
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