Methodological Paradigm of Academician Volodymyr Hnatiuk’s Scientific Views: to the Problem of the Development of European Folklore Studies

Abstract

The paper deals with the problem of the development of European folklore studies of the end of the 19th – the beginning of the 20th century on the basis of the works of Ukrainian academician Volodymyr Hnatiuk, whose activity was under restrictions in the Soviet period, but now must be reconstructed for the whole panorama of the humanitarian studies of that period. The main goal of authors is to trace the trajectory of European folklore studies from its genesis to the late methodological concept in its connections with other fields of humanitarian knowledge such as history, sociology, linguistic, ethnology, anthropology, etc. The main attention is paid to its methodology in the focus of its formation, transformation and interconnections with the emergence of new scientific doctrines. Three dominant schools of folklore studies such as mythological, which was built on the basis of the Aryan theory of the Brothers Grimm; migration, in the centre of which was the theory of international contacts and migration of tales by T. Benfey; and anthropological which based on the theory of self-generation of plots or the idea of polygenesis by E. Taylor and A. Lang, are considered as fundamental while the other theories – historical, geographical – as derivative. Attention is drawn to the fact that Academician V. Hnatiuk considered it expedient to use different methodological approaches when analyzing different genres, depending on whether these genres appeared as original for the Ukrainian tradition or borrowed.

In the conclusion it is indicated that the analysis of the activity of V. Hnatiuk proves that he was aware of all methodological searches of his time and productively applied them in his scientific practice. While mostly scholars were aimed to consider all the existing theories as oppositional to each other, academician V. Hnatiuk tried to reconcile all achievements of his epoch and proved that all the theories are appropriate for certain folklore material and in the majority of cases could be agreed with each other. His academic activity is undoubtedly indicative for the understanding of the developing processes of the humanitarian studies in Europe. As well as scientific views and conclusions of the scholar are still valid for the contemporary folklore studies and could be considered as fruitful example of harmonization of methodologies and scientific approaches in the study of the national heritage of Europeans.