ENLIGHTENMENT REALISM AESTHETICS IN VOLTAIRE’S STORY “THE SIMPLETON” AND I. KOTLYAREVSKY’S PLAY “NATALKA POLTAVKA”

Abstract

Based on the methodology of comparative analysis, the article examines the aesthetic ideas of the Enlightenment in the French story “The Simpleton” by Voltaire (1767) and the Ukrainian play “Natalka Poltavka” by I. Kotlyarevsky (1819). The closeness of the authors’ exploration of the enlightenment ideas aimed at the formation of moral and aesthetic ideals of their contemporaries: the national character of a person, thinking “with the heart”, education and culture of a “natural man” is determined. It is emphasized that I. Kotlyarevskyi’s play “Natalka Poltavka” joins the polemic raised by Voltaire in the story “The Simpleton» regarding the enlightened idea of “natural man” by J.-J. Rousseau. Although in Ukraine the Enlightenment ideology was perceived by thinkers mainly in its Russoist form, I. Kotlyarevskyi had doubts regarding its progressive effect. Following Voltaire, he expresses thoughts in his play about the beneficial influence of certain achievements of civilization and enlightenment on the human being. From the point of view of the Enlightenment aesthetic ideas, the models developed by the authors for solving the tasks of the era through enlightenment as the main tool of civilization and development of the best natural features of man are considered. Simpleton, “the natural man”, becomes a tribune of author’s philosophical views on society, ways of its improvement, formation of human moral beauty. Natalka and Petro from I. Kotlyarevsky’s play “Natalka Poltavka” appear as the same types of “natural” people. It was determined that the expressive means used in Voltaire’s story “The Simpleton” and I. Kotlyarevsky’s play “Natalka Poltavka” carry persuasive power of the writers’ thoughts through various aesthetic categories. The authors are close in their raising of the important questions of society’s existence, shared by many nations, and related by their realistic recreation of reality with effective expressive means. These works are filled with humor, satire and often with grotesque. I. Kotlyarevsky adds folk songs to his play (that’s why he called it a folk opera), which convey the public opinion nurtured by the folk morality better than the characters’ lines. Voltaire, using the technique of “alienation”, demonstrates the absurdity of high life and appeals not only to the mind, but also to the heart. We single out such a technique in I. Kotlyarevsky’s play “Natalka Poltavka”. It is emphasized that, synthesizing the universal and national trends of the Enlightenment in artistic practice, its representatives formed the aesthetics of the movement, relying on the aesthetic ideal of happiness and opposition to everything that hinders it. The French and Ukrainian writers Voltaire and I. Kotlyarevsky discovered new means of depicting reality, which contributed to the formation of moral and aesthetic ideals of their contemporaries. Their creative universalism is directed towards the future.