ALEKSANDER BRÜCKNER AND THE JOURNAL «LUD»: A HISTORY OF COLLABORATION

Abstract

The proposed article aims to bring to light a lesser-known aspect of the collaboration between the PolishGerman Slavist and the Ethnographic Society in Ukrainian scholarly circles.
The research methodology is determined by the purpose of the article and is based mainly on a complex of methods of textual analysis, such as content analysis and hermeneutics. Since the subject of the study is Aleksander Brückner's publications, considerable attention is paid to the reconstruction of the details of the scientist's biography related to the Ethnographic Society. In this context, the biographical method was applied.
Results. The Ethnographic Society in Lviv, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, established itself as a prominent center of ethnographic studies of a pan-European scale. The society's primary publication, the journal «Lud», played a significant role in publicizing its activities. One of the founders of European Slavic studies, Professor Aleksander Brückner of the Friedrich Wilhelm University, was an active member of the Ethnographic Society and a regular contributor to the journal «Lud». During the first quarter of the 20 th century, no fewer than ten articles by Brückner, mostly reviews, appeared in the ethnographic journal. The author emphasizes that Brückner's review publications are an underestimated source in the history of ethnographic science, as well as in the fields of cultural history, Slavic studies, and comparative linguistics. A distinctive feature of Brückner's reviews is their encyclopedic nature, polemical style, and the presence of a research component even in relatively short notes. Within the scope of a single publication, it is challenging to cover the entire body of work of Aleksander Brückner presented in the journal «Lud». However, the article attempts to highlight aspects such as Brückner's general reception of the Ethnographic Society's activities, his assessments of the state of ethnographic studies in Central and Eastern Europe, and the identification of promising directions for further development. All these conclusions are drawn based on the analyzed reviews by Brückner. Attention is also given to the only known research publication by the Berlin professor, which marked the end of Brückner's long-term collaboration with the Lviv ethnographic center.
Novelty. This article is the first overview of Aleksander Brückner's publication activity within the framework of his co-operation with the Ethnographic Society in Lviv.
The practical significance. The materials of the publication may become a starting point for a more in-depth study of cooperation between Ukrainian scientific societies and European scientific centres.