Shevchenko´s Hajdamaks in Literary Context

Abstract

The article attempts to place Shevchenko’s poem on the 1768 Hajdmak-uprising into a wider context, establishing relations with works on this subject which the Ukrainian poet may have known or probably did not know. These are first of all Polish works (Goszczynki´s poem Kaniow-Castle, Czajkowki’s novel Wernyhora). It also examines links with historiographic texts which appeared much later than the aforementioned literary works. An essential part of the “Hajdamak-text” is its Russian component, consisting of novels written by authors of Ukrainian origin, such as V. Narežnyj and O. Somov. There is one more link to Galician literature, where German as well as Ukrainian authors point out the connection between Galician “Opryšky” and Ukrainian “Hajdamaky”.