Dzhydzhora Y. Hymnography of Kievan Rus XI-XIII centuries: structural integral of the cannon of the mine cycle.

The monograph is an integrated study of the cohesion patterns in the structural elements of the literary-artistic unity of the mine cycle cannon in Kievan Rus in the XI-XIII centuries. In the Introduction it is mentioned that in the medieval literature mine cycle cannon has a structure of multilayer formation and its elements’ cohesion can be traced on three levels: 1) paradigmatic (within one theme which unites 9 songs and is/is not retained by acrostic); 2) integral (within 9 separate local themes that are integrated into irmos and tropars); 3) imagery (within the glorified image which consists of one/several semiotic cores with/without semiotic periphery). In the first chapter “Medieval Hymnography as a Subject of Scholarly Study: Research Directions and Major Trends” it is argued that hymnography is one of the most widely spread and representative genres in the medieval literature and it has been an object for scholarly study for more than one and a half century. Four major research directions in medieval hymnography studies are pointed out such as: textological, historical liturgical, musicological and literary. The second chapter “Literature of Kievan Rus of XI-XIII Century: the Structure of the Work of Hymnography” gives a survey of the structure of the medieval canon of the mine cycle. It is argued that in Kievan Rus literature of XI – XIII centuries mine cycle service represents a system of multi-genre singing works determined by the author’ (editor, compiler, copyist etc.) will, conceptually subdued to one goal and embodied in a certain church services’ collection. In the course of the study of the mine service’s structure it has been determined that the cannon interacts as the most deep and complicated structural element from the view point of both external and internal constitution. The symbolization is regarded as a key principle of the image reproduction in the medieval hymnography. Symbol has a complicated structure with three key features such as harmonization of the semiotic components, semantic polyphony or symbol’s multitude of meaning, and different grades of correlation of the typical image with the defining archetype. In hymnography the poetized image belongs to the lowest structural level. However this lowest structural level is a system-building component which provides ideal and compositional integrity of paradigmatic theme as a whole as well as nine local themes of the structural unity of the mine cycle. In the third chapter “Structural Organization of the Mine Cannons in Kievan Rus” it is stated that depending on the level of harmonization of the semiotic components the studied mine relics in Kievan Rus of the XI – XIII centuries can be classified in accordance with the mode in which the author performs the simplest, the more complicated and the most complicated construction of the image.