Panteleimon Kulish’s Epistolary Discourse as a Reflection of the Cultural Mission and Nation-Building Potential of Bible Translation

Abstract

The purpose of the work is to study the long-term translation into Ukrainian of the Bible by P. Kulish based on the material of epistolary sources. The research methodology is based on general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, which involved historical, systematic, typological and aesthetic methods, as well as methods of archival and source science heuristics, source science criticism of sources, their textual analysis and information reconstruction. The scientific novelty of the study. For the first time, two correspondences to the representative of the clergy Zakhary Kysilevich, which provide information about the translation into Ukrainian of the Bible by P. Kulish. This is an addition to the large array of already published correspondences, which in turn contribute to the multiplication of the writer’s epistolary works. Conclusions. Kulish’s letters proved the titanic intellectual capacity of the artist, which is worth only the translation activity – the translation of the works of European poets and writers, and most importantly – the translation of the Bible into the Ukrainian language. In general, the presented epistolary documents made it possible to reveal unknown and little-known facts of the translator’s activity, and also supplemented the writer’s biography, which is a valuable source for his own prosopographic portrait, focusing on the addressee’s nation-building views and ideas. The considered epistles of P. Kulish recorded information for his addressees, which made it possible to follow the artist’s long-term translation activity, in particular, to identify and analyse the peculiarities of the translation of the biblical text into Ukrainian.