Kozlovskyi V. Ukrainian folk ballad: aesthetic aspect.

The thesis is the first comprehensive research of the aesthetic aspect of the folk ballad. The investigation employs main categories of aesthetics - the tragic, the dramatic and the heroic. The artistic and expressive peculiarities of oral poetic texts are considered in the light of these notions. There is suggested a typological scheme of the tragic and the heroic in the genre of ballad. Special attention is drawn to the specificity of the poetic expression of the mentioned categories. Composition, motifs, images and tropes are highlighted as aesthetic components of lyrico-epics. A scrupulous analysis of the plot conflicts in the ballads, their motivation and ways of realization in a piece of folklore has been performed.