The thesis is the first conceptually integral study of the literary early baroque genre of lament. The dissertation considered the origin, thematic-ideological, figurative, compositional and artistic-stylistic features of the genre.
It was determined that the sources of lament formation were powerful local folk traditions (folk lamentations, captives’ laments and thoughts), Biblical, apocryphal and liturgical texts, as well as the Antiquity cultural heritage. The laments borrowed some ideological principles, motives, images, symbols and language from the folk lamentations for the dead. The similar folk elements of lamentation are also presented in the medieval Kyivan Rus’ records. The authors of the laments adopted from the Biblical texts the sublime tone of the story, numerous examples from the lives of ancient prophets and kings and the tradition of commemorating the dead. The strong Polish tradition of writing threnody (the threnody of J. Kochanowski, T. Wishnowsky, the anonymous so-called “rural laments” (“lamenty chłopski”) contributed to the creation of Ukrainian Baroque laments.
The two typological groups of laments are established: on the death of secular persons (they retransmitted sociopolitical sentiments, presented the ideology of the Sarmatian-Roxolane myth and proclaimed the ideal of a national hero) and on the death of the clergy (they presented the image of a priest as a spiritual warrior endowed with the features of an ideal shepherd compared with Jesus Christ). It was established that the metaphysical nature of laments primarily represented the phenomenon of death (as a way of reconciliation with the world and connection with God). The motive “vanity of vanities” is actualized.
The narrative strategy of ancient Ukrainian laments is a series of compositional blocks with the appropriate purpose of extended annotation in the title, actualization of the biblical motifs in epigraphs, activation of the reader’s and listener’s perception in prefaces, rhetorical saturation of structural blocks in the form of laments, cries and threnodes. These compositional elements were aimed to impress sensitive recipients able to embrace the author’s emotions. The final role in the laments is traditionally given to epitaphions, afterwords to readers and epilogues in the form of epigrams.
It was proved that the degree of intertextuality of laments is attributable to the level of education of the authors and close intercultural ties and the complexity of Baroque aesthetics. It was observed that the intentions from the Holy Bible predominated in the laments in honor of the clergy, while folk, antique and historiosophical borrowings dominated in the laments in honor of the secular persons. The most commonly used forms of intertextuality are quotations, allusions and reminiscences. The intertextual connections in laments have a stylistic, semantic and text creating function.
The thesis proved that the emotions in laments have an intellectual character, become an experience of the highest truth and a way of spiritual growth. The means of emotionality are of folk (e.g. rhetorical figures, anaphora and opposition) and literary nature (dialogicity, argumentation, accuracy and richness of stylistically marked vocabulary), which indicates great erudition of the Baroque authors.
The results of the research are important for the formation of new approaches to the genre system of the Ukrainian Baroque literature, determining the place of laments in the poetic writing of this time and understanding their artistic value.
