Historicity Versus Literary Imagination: Hetman Ivan Mazepa as Protagonist in German Literature (Ukraine).

Abstract

This dissertation deals with Hetman Ivan Mazepa as protagonist in German literature. It focuses on historicity versus literary imagination in the works of and reas May Der Konig der Steppe (1849), Adolf Muzelburg Mazeppa (1861), Rudolf Gottschall Mazeppa (1865) and Johann Froembgen Der Teufelsjunger (1941). The study of the interplay between history and the literary imagination in rendering a literary portrait of the historical Ivan Mazepa is accomplished by (1) looking at the historical profile of persons and historical events; (2) identifying the author's selective preference for certain figures and events from among the available historical data; (3) describing the type and degree of transformation the historical material underwent in the author's h and s; (4) analyzing the author's purpose in transforming the historical data and ; (5) showing how historical data was worked into the general scheme of the literary work. Attention is paid to the utilization of the historical material related to the Ukrainian-Muscovite and Mazepa-Peter the Great Relationships, Mazepa's Youth, the Mazepa-Motrja love affair, the Ukrainian-Swedish alliance and the Battle of Poltava. This study shows that the incorporation of history into the literary work by May, Gottschall, Muzelburg and Froembgen for purposes of rendering a literary portrait of the historical Mazepa occurs in any one or in a combination of four different ways: (1) the author recreates the facts of the past which either serve as an historical backdrop, or provide a ready-made plot with a definite beginning and end; (2) the author utilizes a conglomeration of historical situations, relationships and problems which give rise to dramatic and romantic possibilities in story making; (3) the author uses history, historical anecdotes, or legends only as a springboard to weave a tale involving both historical and fictitious characters; or (4) the author places historical events in the context of personal experience and thus provides an internal view of the external world of historical "reality."