From Jan Kochanowski’s "Treny" to Ivan Franko's Elegies

Abstract

The article traces the evolution of Ukrainian elegy upon the death from Jan Kochanowski to Ivan Franko. The author defines the genesis of the genre having studied the novelty and originality of the philosophical and poetic work “Treny” by Jan Kochanowski (Yan Kochanowski’s “Treny” (1580)) and Franko’s works “23rd anniversary of Taras Shevchenko’s death” (1884) and “25th anniversary of Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko’s death” (1886) as a kind of funeral elegy. The author mentions such significant works as “In eternal memory of Kotliarevskyi” by Taras Shevchenko, poems upon the death and death anniversary of Kobzar, which formed a new type of funeral elegy with its constant poetic and compositional scheme, and this or that way they are pasticcio of Shevchenko’s style of writing. A significant step in the development of genre was represented by Mykhaylo Starytski’s works, which marked the emergence of a realistic elegy upon the death with clearly defined emotional personal principle, where the persona is an immediate witness and excited participant of events. These works contributed to the rise of poetic inspiration. Starytskyi’s elegy became the basis for Franko’s elegies upon the death of Shevchenko. Franko established a qualitatively new genre invariant on the basis of traditional for this genre theme.