“Nocturne b-moll” by Yurij Kosach: The Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Music

Abstract

The article analyzes the post-war work of the famous Ukrainian author Yury Kosach in the context of literary searches of Ukrainian Diaspora literature of the first half of the 20^th century. His historical prose is read in a psychological way, taking into account the cultural and historical context.

The goal of the investigation is to understand Yuri Kosach's "Nocturne b-moll" through the prism of Nietzschean ideas with the involvement of the hermeneutic approach of broad extratextual contexts, in particular intermedial analysis. The main focus of the address is on the embodiment in Y. Kosach's short story of F. Nietzsche's ideas expressed in his work "The Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Music". The work of the Ukrainian artist becomes an example of Nietzschean perfect tragedy in a combination of Apollonian (ideal visible beauty, wrapped in dreamy contemplation) – expressed in plastic, and Dionysian (ecstasy, night reverie, prophetic voice) – expressed primarily in music. The text analysis of "Nocturne b-moll" by Yury Kosach is included in the nocturne tradition and the literature of European existentialism, taking into account the historical circumstances of the writing of the work and the wider context of historical prose about the Second World War.

The interpretation of the problem is emphasized by the understanding of intertextual elements (in particular, quotations from the works of F. Nietzsche, A. Silesius, etc.) and intermedial inclusions (Chopin, Mozart, Ravel, Puccini, etc.). Contrast is recognized as the main principle of construction of the text "Nocturne b-moll" as a contradiction between real and ideal, reality and myth, sin and redemption, good and evil, low and high. The problem of dissonance in music and literature is also elaborated. The human existence in a borderline situation depicted in literature often highlights those aspects of being that have to be interpreted "on the other side of good and evil." Such methodological approach to the analysis of Yu.Kosach's prose is innovative in Ukrainian literary studies, which constitutes the novelty of this study.

It is emphasized that Yu. Kosach considered the features of Nietzscheanism to be an important component of Ukrainian modernism of the beginning of the 20th century, which brought our writing to the European level. The conclusions state that the historical post-war prose of Yu. Kosach, in particular, in his understanding of the ideas of Nietzscheanism and existentialism, is a continuation of the best traditions of Ukrainian modernism at the beginning of the century, and at the same time – an embodiment of the ideas of the crisis era. In his work, the understanding of individual tragedy is projected onto the national tragedy and the Nietzschean problem of world sorrow.