Prose by Taras Shevchenko and Western Literature: Imitation or Creative Assimilation of Artistic Experience? <i> (Scientific Report at NAS of Ukraine Presidium Meeting 2 October 2013)</i>
An attempt is made to expand the circle of contact connections of Shevchenko as a prose writer with novels by Charles Dickens. In particular, it is proved that in addition to knowing Dickens’s novels “Nicholas Nickleby” and “David Copperfield” mentioned in his prose, Shevchenko was aware of “Bleak House” and “Dombey and Son”. The article analyses connections between Shevchenko’s stories and works by Sir Walter Scott. It also examines semantics of intertextual references in the story “The Artist” to the novel “The Vicar of Wakefield” by Oliver Goldsmith. It is pointed out that Shevchenko critically assimilated the artistic heritage of Eugene Sue’s whose novels were used by the Ukrainian writer rather for playing with readers. As a result, the article calls into question the widespread in the Shevchenko studies thesis that in his stories the author imitates the prose models of western literature.