"I'm blind or sighted": Interpretation of the Motif of Blindness in the Work of Maurice Maeterlinck ("Blind") and Lesia Ukrainka ("Blind Man")

Abstract

M. Maeterlinck's play "The Blind" (1890) and Lesya Ukrainka's essay "The Blind Man" (1902) are indicative in the context of actualization by writers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries the archetypal image of the blind man and the motif of blindness. The purpose of our research is to analyze the works of the Belgian playwright and the Ukrainian writer through the prism of the specificity of the author's interpretation of the blindness's motive. In view of the comparative direction of the work, the main comparative (typological-comparative, geneticcontact, thematic, recipe) and hermeneutic methods of literary analysis were used. In addition, elements of cultural-historical, semiotic, structuralist, intertextual methods of analysis of artistic texts are applied. The theoretical basis of the study was the scientific works of Ukrainian literary critics, devoted to the understanding of the age of Decadence, the era of Modernism, symbolism as a modernist artistic direction.

As a result of the research, it was found out that Lesya Ukrainka's reception of M. Maeterlinck's work is aimed at different levels – literary and critical, theoretical, translational and actually artistic. Dialogue relations connect M. Maeterlinck's play "The Blind" and the essay "The Blind" by Lesia Ukrainka on the aestheticphilosophical and poetic-stylistic textual levels. Between the works there are many common problems, images, allusions based on the motive of blindness. At the same time, they acquire specific forms in the process of the author's interpretation, which is determined primarily by worldview factors – M. Maeterlinck, at the worldview level, is rooted in pessimistic-decadent philosophy (A. Schopenhauer), on the other hand, Lesya Ukrainka – in the post-decadent dimension of the "philosophy of life" (A. Bergson). The play "The Blind" by M. Maeterlinck is a kind of "parable" about the fate of mankind; blindness projected by the author on human civilization in the global historical discourse. The same universal comprehensive projection determines the specifics of the author's consideration of the problems of freedom, choice, and loneliness based on the motive of blindness. Lesya Ukrainka makes sense of blindness in the projection of a separate personality, which is aware of its exceptionality / otherness. According to the decadent-symbolist views of M. Maeterlinck, blindness (epistemological, mental, spiritual) causes and intensifies the tragedy of human worldview; it is an incurable "disease"; humanity is doomed to be "blind". Blindness in the interpretation of Lesya Ukrainka is presented in a symbolistmodernist style without decadent trends: it is a sign of a "living" spirit, a gift of the chosen ones. M. Maeterlinck and Lesya Ukrainka reveal the subject of art through the prism of blindness. It is understood at the level of "triads": Young Blind, Crazy, Child – images-symbols that reveal the essence of Maeterlinck's concept of art; Blind man, a sister of mercy and a child are the symbolic heart of Lesya Ukrainka's artistic concept. M. Maeterlinck's concept is based on the idea of a dialectical connection between classical and modern artistic paradigms; Lesya Ukrainka – on the idea of individualistic affirmation of the creative personality. The artist in the reception of both authors is a seeker of light and truth. He is a symbolist artist, worldview attached to the philosophy of intuitionism. "The Blind" by M. Maeterlinck and "The Blind Man" by Lesia Ukrainka are symbolist texts at the level of poetics (chronotope, character, composition, narration; problem, conflict, collision; images-symbols) and aesthetics (philosophy of "two worlds").