Artistic Markers in the Essays of Oleksandr Boichenko

Abstract

The essays of Oleksandr Boichenko are primarily a reflex and reflection on the issues of the day. Reflex – as they are almost instant reactions to problems that provoke Ukrainian society. Reflection – as the essayist, within the field of his text, often contemplates reality, employing Socratic maieutics as a means of self-discovery, a technique for creating concise writings, and a way to communicate with readers. However, when Boichenko’s columns, usually published in “Zbruch”, “Krayina”, and other media, are turned into books, the texts are detached from the news stream, stripped of dates and the presence of essays by other authors, and recontextualized by the book’s title. At this point, these texts, initially perceived as direct-action essays, begin to reveal previously unnoticed facets and drift toward artistry. This is particularly true of essays in which Oleksandr Boichenko draws on his personal life experiences – family, friends, travels, and overcoming illness. While these texts could be classified as memoirs, they are constructed based on the principles of artistic writing. The author develops plots (both local, within individual essay-novellas, and overarching, shaping the sequence of texts in each book), employs irony, sarcasm, satire, paronomasia, defamiliarization, overt stylistic devices, anachronisms, narrator juggling, and – in a thoroughly postmodern manner – explicitly and implicitly incorporates quotations into his texts. He meticulously selects epithets, creates fresh metaphors, and maintains rhythm. In crafting his essays, Boichenko builds his own linguistic paradigm, creating a distinctive style. Oleksandr Boichenko primarily works within the genre of diatribe, particularly Menippean satire, although his latest book, “Hra na vybuvannia”, demonstrates a departure from this genre. Boichenko’s texts exhibit a tendency toward monologism, and a noticeable shift to a different stylistic approach emerges. The author moves closer to metamodern discourse, with postmodernist playfulness diminishing, and textual passages oscillating between irony and sincerity.