TOPOS CHIVALRY IN THE HISTORICAL TRILOGY OF HENRIK SENKEVICH

Abstract

The study of modern and modern literature involves the active use of typological comparative methods, in particular, the comparative topic was one of the most widely used research techniques. Romantic historiosophy can be analyzed in the following aspects: mythologization of the past, mythological modernization and mythologization of the future. Romance writers attached great importance to profetism, that is, their efforts were directed towards the future. The future made it possible to explain and understand the past and what is happening in modern times. That is, the «philosophy of the future» prevailed in Polish romanticism, and not the «philosophy of death», when the present and the past were submitted through the prism of the future as the material necessary for him. Such views are clearly visible in the outlook of the famous Polish writer Henrik Senkevich. Purpose. The purpose of the article: to find out the specifics and methods of the formation and implementation of the topos of chivalry in the historical trilogy of Henrik Senkevich (novels «Fire and sword», «Flood», «Volodievsky»). Methods. The complex nature of scientific research involves the integration of several scientific methods: a comparative method in its genetic-contact (outline of literary influences) and comparativetypological (the disclosure of compositional, genre-style features and the specificity of the figurative system). The source for the research was the works on the literary process at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, on rhetoric, topic, poetics (Y. Bulakhovskaya, G. Grabovich, E. Kaspersky, D. Nalyvaika, E. Nakhlik, I. Franko). Results. The greatest popularity among all the works of G. Senkevich acquired the historical trilogy. In an effort to «support the spirit» of compatriots, the novelist largely idealizes his native country, portraying the events of the seventeenth century exclusively in the spirit of the gentry's notions about himself and the world around him. Therefore, the trilogy contains historical distortions, which, however, correspond to the perception of the main characters. In the second half of the nineteenth century among the Polish intellectuals, the ideas of messianism, which attributed the Polish people an exceptional significance, spread. Polish romantic writers did not pass the influence of messianism; it was clearly manifested in the trilogy (and in all creativity) G. Senkevich. In such a social and cultural context, the emergence of the first part of the trilogy – the novel «Fire and sword» was not an accident, as evidenced by its huge influence on the formation of the conservative mentality of the Poles. The ideal of G. Senkevich is a devout, healthy Catholic soldier, not overburdened with excessive reflections, but endowed with outstanding abilities in fencing and love. The author points to the main mental archetypes, the fundamental elements of the national system of values, such as: Christianity (primarily the Polish style of Catholic religiosity – «the fortress of Christianity»), sarmatism, the struggle for liberation, the determining role of public duty. Originality. The article investigates the historiosophical concept of the past Polish people in Henrik Senkevich's historical trilogy. Due to the comparison of the Sarmatian and Cossack chivalry cultures with the characteristic topic for them, the boundary character of these cults, their influence on the culture of both peoples (Ukrainian and Polish) is revealed. Conclusion. The analysis of G. Sienkiewicz’s works makes it possible to distinguish the discourses of the historical knights (the past), which testifies to their importance and significance in the work of the Polish prose writer. The sources of the formation of «common places», that is, the topos, were not only Christian, historical, folklore materials, but also modern ideological discourses. The frequency of use in the trilogy of certain temos-keys (topos of weapons, Sarmatian cult, heroism, folk singers) indicates the ideological characteristics of the writer and the entire era of the centuries. The study of the work of the Polish writer has a dual vector: the synthesis of romantic ideology and romantic poetics.