Reading as Cultural Transfer. Mykhailo Drahomanov’s Vision of the Printed Word in the Light of his Reading Practices and Proposals in the Early 1870s
Svitlana Blashchuk
Candidate of Historical Sciences,
Senior Research Fellow,
Institute of History of Ukraine NAS of Ukraine
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1430-6353
Oleksii Yas
Corresponding Member of NAS of Ukraine,
Doctor of Historical Sciences,
Leading Research Fellow,
Institute of History of Ukraine NAS of Ukraine
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5816-2876
Abstract
The purpose of the article is to outline M. Drahomanov’s reading repertoire and his understanding of the purpose of the printed word. M. Drahomanov’s reading priorities are considered to be the product of his positivist conception of social progress and evolutionary vision of reforming/modernizing the Russian Empire, as well as the associated political and socio-cultural contexts.
The research methodology is based on a combination of analytical and comparative strategies used in the history of reading and intellectual history, focused on the presentation of both reading practices and reading suggestions of M. Drahomanov. These suggestions are considered as a way of shaping personal, group, and collective worldview and, at the same time, a channel for the communication of European intellectual and cultural innovations, political and social ideas.
The scientific novelty is related to the outline of M. Drahomanov’s reading repertoire during his foreign mission of 1870–1873. His core reading range has been determined on the basis of references in published texts and epistolary works of M. Drahomanov. It is noted that many of his publications of the early 1870s were processed during his European travels, in particular as a result of reading practices and bibliographic heuristics in Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, and Austria-Hungary.
Conclusions. It has been found that M. Drahomanov, as an intellectual of positivist schooling, was distinguished by the versatility and utilitarianism of reading inquiries, which was reflected in his extensive writing style. It is shown that M. Drahomanov’s reading repertoire allows for tracing his intellectual and political evolution in greater detail. It is argued that M. Drahomanov’s proposals, both in the field of translations for popular reading and recommendations to individuals, reflected his vision of the printed word. It is emphasized that he considered reading as an important channel for the communication of European civilizational achievements, cultural guidelines, and intellectual innovations for their assimilation by Ukrainianness in the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires.
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