Галломанія в російськомовних творах Григорія Квітки-Основ’яненко
Gallomania in the Russian works of Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko

Summary/Abstract: The phenomenon associated with an extraordinary fascination with France, French people, French language, culture, art, habits, etc., which spread throughout Europe in the eighteenth century, was called ‘Gallomania’ after the Celtic tribes of Gauls who inhabited the territory of France two thousand years ago. This passionate adoration of French, which was expressed in the desire to imitate them in every way possible and to exalt them above other nations, flourished in the highest strata of European society during the Enlightenment. Gallomania was also a means of distinguishing nobility from other strata of society. Later, in many cases, it turned into gallophobia, i.e. intolerance, hatred and condemnation of everything French. Depiction of gallomania in the Ukrainian literature of the nineteenth century is rare, which is explained by the absence of upper classes of the society and the traditional agricultural way of life of Ukrainians, as well as the accelerated development of the so called new Ukrainian literature of the time. The portrayal of gallomania in early nineteenth-century Ukrainian literature is made through its condemnation, exposing the negative consequences of the fascination with France and everything French, and is most fully revealed in the works of Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko, primarily in his Russian works: in the satirical essays Letters to Publishers (Письма к издателям, 1816), Letters to the Elder of Luzhnytsia (Письма к Лужницкому старцу, 1822), and the comedy The Newcomer from the Capital, or the Hubbub in the County Town (Приезжий из столицы, или суматоха в уездном городе, 1827). Language plays a crucial role in the exposure and condemnation of gallomania in the works of Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko. The level of proficiency in French serves both as a figurative function for both positive and negative characters with eloquent names. None of the negative characters speaks French properly, but they try to speak even their native language with a French accent, or they do not speak their native language at all. The upbringing and education of young people is the next area in which Kvitka-Osnovianenko exposes gallomania by contrasting public institutions with closed, private schools run by foreigners, where teachers were mostly French, but there was absolutely no idea of what qualities a teacher should have. The eloquent names of the owners of the private schools encode a complete description of the educational activities created in the spirit of gallomania. In his Letters to the Publishers, Falaley Povinukhin goes through a thorny path from praising gallomania to affirming fierce, absurd francophobia.

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