To the History of Ukrainian Poetic Journalism during the Wartime Period (1939–1945): the Press Context

Abstract

For the first time in the Ukrainian press and literary discourse, Ukrainian poetic journalism of the Second World War period is considered as a separate cultural and informational phenomenon. The purpose of the article is to study this journalism in the context of journalism as a separate kind of literature and in the discourse of the functioning of the press of various socio-political forces of the time (pro-German, Soviet and Ukrainian Insurgent Army journals) as the main platforms for the publication of poetic journalistic texts by their respective poets-apologists. The differentiation of concepts and terms is emphasized: «journalism» as a distinct literary genre with specific form-content characteristics (article, essay, report, pamphlet, feuilleton) and elements of «journalistic» style of other types, genres and genres of «finewriting» (journalistic poetry, journalistic prose, journalistic drama, literary criticism), taking as the subject of research exactly journalism and journalism created in the form of a poem, which, according to a esthetic criteria, were not always poetry in the existential sense of the term, but only «poetic» journalism it self, which is based not on anartistic image, ethical and aesthetic connotation, buton a fact, anideologeme, the context of the historical process of the time period und erstudy and the worldview of the poets-publicists are presented before or alongside the description of any journalistictext, in combination and simultaneously distinguishing between the history of poetic journalism and the history of the press (magazines, newspapers, almanacs), on the pages of which the texts of poeticjournalism were published. The author emphasizes on the epistemological difference between the concepts of «Ukrainian-language» and «Ukrainian-speaking» poetic journalism of the war period. The author traces the dynamics of changes in the formcontent of poetic journalism by its authors, including not only poets, but also publicfigures, representatives of other types and genres of literature (prosewriters, essayists, playwrights), and journalists representing the three main socio-politicalgroups (pro-German, Soviet, and Ukrainian Insurgent Army) during the Second World Warin Ukraine. The conclusions emphasize that the texts of poetic journalism published in the press of the studied period reflected the struggle of ideologies, racial, class, gender, etc. stereotypes, culture and civilization in general and, despite strict censorship, ukrainianized a significant totalitarian artistic and information space.