MYKOLA ZHULYNSKYI’S FOCUS AREAS IN FRANKO STUDIES

For the first time, the paper examines Mykola Zhulynskyi’s publications of 1991—2016 (articles, a preface, and the book “He Knew How Much a Word Means...”, 2008), which rethink the phenomenon of the Ukrainian writer, thinker, scholar, public figure, and politician Ivan Franko (1856—1916). They compare the ideologically distorted reception of Franko during the Soviet era with attempts to update it in independent Ukraine. M. Zhulynskyi traces the evolution of Franko’s political views—from interest in “scientific socialism” and Marxism, through enthusiasm for Drahomanov’s ideas, to criticism of F. Engels’ “people’s state,” German and Russian social democracy, and finally to the positions of national democracy and advocacy of Ukraine’s political independence. At the same time, Franko is presented as a living personality. Drawing on Franko’s views on the historical processes in culture, nation-building, and state-building, M. Zhulynskyi substantiates his own ideological conception of the modern development of Ukrainian culture, nation, and state. Yevhen Nakhlik traces the interpretive emphasis of M. Zhulynskyi’s innovative Franko studies, which remain relevant today. Zhulynskyi highlighted Ivan Franko’s value priorities (cultural development, nation-building, state-building, and Europeanism), his analysis of the phenomenon of the soul—both human soul in general and the author’s own (focusing on issues such as duality and internal struggle), and the approach of existential poetic confession. While in his earlier articles (1992, 1996, 1999) M. Zhulynskyi primarily covered the evolution of Ivan Franko’s political and philosophical views, in his 2006 research works he focused on the writer’s personal psychology. Notable for their accessible popular narrative and publicist fervor, M. Zhulynskyi’s studies on Franko contribute to a revised reception and the actualization of the writer’s heritage.