«БУВ АВТОР – НА ЧУЖУ НЕ ЗАЗДРИВ ДОБРУ СЛАВУ»: ВПЛИВ ПРОСВІТНИЦЬКОЇ БАЙКИ НА УКРАЇНСЬКУ ЛІТЕРАТУРУ ПЕРШОЇ ПОЛОВИНИ ХІХ СТ.

The article focuses on the tradition of fable writing in Ukrainian literature of the first half of the 19th century. It has been established that the overall Enlightenment discourse in Ukrainian literature is characterized by an amalgamated type of literary thinking. Within the framework of Enlightenment axiology, priority is given to the concept of rationality, where common sense is regarded as an undeniable value. This leads, in Ukrainian literature, to the idyllic perception of the peasant as a "natural person" analogous to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s search for the "natural individual" in French literature or Voltaire’s idea of the "rational bein". At the same time, the notion emerges that literature, in complex life circumstances, can help guide individuals toward making the "right" moral choice and adopting appropriate patterns of behavior. This idea, given the didactic nature of the fable genre, grants it a special literary status. Interpreting the Ukrainian fable tradition through the prism of the literary-aesthetic strategies of the Enlightenment has made it possible to identify the dominant influence of the works of Jean de La Fontaine and Ignacy Krasicki. The fables of La Fontaine, which became accessible to Ukrainian readers through the translations of P. Biletskyi-Nosenko, combined migrating fable plots, allegory, conflicts that resonated with contemporary realities, and national character types. These works also inspired Ukrainian writers to try their hand at composing fables in the La Fontaine style. It has been determined that Ukrainian-Polish connections in fable writing are most vividly represented in the works of P. Hulak-Artemovskyi. Given the Polonistic vector of his intellectual activity, his literary interest in the fables of Ignacy Krasicki, directed against the arrogance of the nobility, "black ignorance", and superstition is fully justified. Hulak-Artemovskyi used the fables of the "Polish Voltaire" as material, adapting them in various ways: from precise adherence to form to the genre of the fable-tale through plot expansion. It has been established that the analysis of the "literary and everyday complex" (O. Borzenko) of Hulak-Artemovskyi – namely, the fable-tale "The Master and the Dog", published together with "A Petition to Hrytsko K[vitk]a" and the address to readers "Good People, and You, Gentlemen of the Community!" highlights Ukrainian-Polish fable connections. The fable writer’s chosen publication strategy demonstrated the influence of Enlightenment strategies not only on the Ukrainian literary discourse but also on the cultural and social life of Ukrainians.