Стаття аналізує один з провідних епічних творів І. С. Нечуя-Левицького роман «Хмари», що трактується з погляду наявності у ньому київських мотивів: топологічних, етнічних, ментальних, історичних, етнокультурних, географічних тощо. Крайобраз Києва розкривається у пов’язанні відтвореної І. Нечуєм-Левицьким на сторінках роману «Хмари» історії Києва, стану освіти у місті, політичної ситуації, міської культури, архітектури та природи. У статті проаналізовано проблематику, образи, героїв роману «Хмари» та міський топос у творі.
Introduction: the article analyzes one of the leading epic works by I. Nechuy-Levytskyi, the novel «Clouds», which is interpreted from the point of view the Kyiv motifs in it: topological, ethnic, mental, historical, ethno-cultural, geographical, etc. Purpose: To outline the Kyiv topos of the novel «Clouds» of the classic of Ukrainian realistic prose by I. Nechuy-Levitsky, to analyze the features of the Kiev text in the work «Clouds», to determine the principles of literary development of the features the life of the inhabitants Kiev. Methods: analysis, synthesis, hermeneutics, problem-thematic method. Results: The article interprets the appearance of the Kiev text in the work of «Clouds» by I. Nechuy-Levitsky. Originality: Literary studies have not yet taken place in this formulation. Conclusion: I. Nechuy-Levitsky in the novel «Clouds» reflected the Kiev text and the Kiev topos through landscape descriptions, images of heroes, authorial retreats and landscapes of Kiev. The work describes the multicultural nature of urban life. The urban topos often takes over the main functions of the narrative: plot, ideological-thematic, character-building, psychological, etc., which go beyond exclusively landscape. The peculiarity and innovation of the I. Nechuy-Levitsky is the mythologization of the image of Kiev, the polyvalence of urban cultural spaces (Ukrainian, Russian, cosmopolitan), anthropologism, the display of several generations residents of the city on the pages of the novel «Clouds». The complex analysis of the Kyiv topos in the novel «Clouds» shows the desire for deep psychologization, sacralization and aesthetization of the environment in the artistic time-space continuum of the work. Imaginative meanings and subtexts, often quite important in the structure of the text, are deciphered by the writer for landscape paintings, urban images or strokes. Kiev in I. Nechuy-Levytskyi is a disgraced glorious Troy, caught in the clutches of the Russian Empire, where education and Ukrainian culture are stagnant. In the modeling of Kyiv life, the artist of Ukrainian prose in the novel «Clouds», the source of hope for revival is the activity of the Ukrainian national intelligentsia: patriots, enlighteners, Ukrainophiles.