A linguistic analysis of the first and second redactions of H. S. Skovoroda’s dialogue Narkiss : from a local to a supernational perspective

The article compares two different redactions of Skovoroda’s first philosophical dialogue Narkiss (dating 1769–1771 and 1780s respectively), focusing on the interaction between the old Ukrainian literary tradition, Meletian Church Slavonic and the new Russian literary language. In seeking to ascertain whether Skovoroda’s language has been subject to any development, I point to the concurrent processes of deukranization and Church-Slavonicization as shaping the writer’s linguistic practice in the last decade (1780–1794) of his life and literary activity.