Mariana Komarytsia
Dr. habil. in Philology, Senior Research Fellow,
Head of the Department of the Research Institute for Press Studies
Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine in Lviv
(Lviv, Ukraine)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.37222/2786-7552-2025-7-3
Ivan Franko’s Long Poem «Moses» in the Galician Press:Reception and Interpretation.
The aim of the article is to analyse the interpretive models of Ivan Franko’s long poem «Moses» in the Galician press discourse on Franko studies from 1906 to 1941 as a unique phenomenon of national literature, a factor influencing social development – particularly the process of Ukrainian state-building – a subject of religious debate, and, ultimately, a cultural phenomenon identifying the poet himself with Moses. The objectives of the study include the selective search, systematisation, and analysis of publications in Galician periodicals such as «Svit», «Buduchnist», «Literary» and «Scientific Herald», «Nova Khata», «Svit», «Zhinocha Dolia», «Ukrainka», among others, with the incorporation of content from Dnipro Ukraine periodicals («Rada», «Vilne Zhyttia») and emigration periodicals («Svoboda» and «Bazar»). These publications represented the receptive space of Franko’s «Moses» in various social milieus and reflected the influence of the global literary image on the formation of the poet’s cult. Research methods. The article employs analytical, descriptive, comparative, and biographical methods, which make it possible to trace the process of reception of the long poem, critical analysis of its autobiographical foundations, religious sources, socio-political context, and the role of Franko himself as a spiritual leader of Ukrainians on the eve of the Liberation Struggles of 1917–1921. Novelty of the study. For the first time, the reception of the long poem Moses is systematically examined based on Galician press materials, with the comparative inclusion of several Dnipro-region and diaspora periodicals, as well as book publications and serial editions – more than twenty sources in total. This approach introduces numerous little-known and previously unknown materials into scholarly circulation. A thorough analysis of the extensive source base makes it possible to construct a comprehensive picture of the long poem’s reception, compare the conclusions of prominent Ukrainian scholars and cultural figures, and situate them within the broader cultural context of the period. Conclusions. Press publications on Franko’s Moses span more than three decades, allowing for tracing the evolution of the long poem’s reception, the influence of personal factors and socio-political circumstances on this process, and the construction of an overall receptive framework based on publications of various genres. They also enable the formulation of a concept of the influence of both the poet and his seminal work on the process of Ukrainian state-building and on the interpretation of the relationship between the leader and the community.
Keywords: : Ivan Franko, long poem «Moses», press response, critical reception.
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