Ukrainian literature. Early developments

Oral literature in Ukraine can be traced to pre-Christian times. Pagan ritual songs were subsequently much modified by association with various church feasts (e.g., kolyadky with the Christmas cycle). The heroic epics (byliny) of the early medieval period may have survived in Ukraine until the 16th century, but they were then wholly superseded by historical songs (dumy) based on events in the 16th and 17th centuries in Cossack Ukraine.

Written literature began with Christianization and the introduction of Old Church Slavonic as a liturgical and literary language. The literary heritage of the Ukrainian people in the early period, from the 11th to the 13th century, is that of Kievan Rus'; their works were written in Church Slavonic. The earliest works of the Kievan period (10th century and following) were the historical annals: "Povist vremennykh lit" ("Tale of Bygone Years"), the Hypatian (Kievan) chronicle, and the Galician-Volhynian chronicle. The 12th-century "Slovo о polky Ihorevi" ("The Song of Igor's Campaign") is a unique historical epic, the most prominent piece of literary heritage of Kievan Rus'. Sermons, tales, and lives of the saints were the major genres. The major authors of this period were the chronicler Nestor, the sermon writers Ilarion of Kiev, Cyril of Turov, and Prince Volodymyr (Vladimir) II Monomakh.

After the Mongol destruction of Kievan Rus in the 13th century, literary activity in Ukraine declined. A revival began in the late 16th century with the introduction of printing, the Reformation ferment, and the advance of the Counter-Reformation into Polish-dominated Ukrainian lands. The Union of Brest-Litovsk (1596), which united several million Ukrainian and Belarusian Orthodox believers with Rome, stimulated an exceedingly rich polemical literature, with the "Apocrisis" (1598; "Reply") of the pseudonymous Khrystofor Filalet and the anonymous "Perestoroha" (1605; "Warning") on the Orthodox side and the "Antirizis" (1599; "Refutation") of Ipaty Poty in the Uniat camp. The most distinguished and prolific polemicist was the Orthodox Ivan Vyshensky, whose ornate style combines Church Slavonic withvernacular elements.

The major current in Ukrainian literature of the 17th and 18th centuries, as in all of Europe, was the Baroque, with its love of adornment and originality. Among the major figures of this age were Kasiyan Sakovych and Ivan Velychkovsky in verse, Yoaniky Galyatovsky in homiletics, and Teofan Prokopovych in drama. Historical writing is best represented by the Cossack chronicle of Samiylo Velychko (1720). Of interest for their content and their literary qualities were the 18th-century writings of the philosopher Hryhory Skovoroda, styled the "Ukrainian Socrates."

After the fall of Kievan Rus' in the 13th century, distinctive dialectal characteristics of the Ukrainian language emerged, but for many centuries thereafter the language had almost no literary expression, owing to Ukraine's long political subordination and the consequent use of Belarusian, Polish, Russian, and Church Slavonic for official purposes. It was not until the end of the 18th century that modern literary Ukrainian emerged out of the colloquial Ukrainian tongue, and an era of prolific writing began.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-13