The Poetics of Romanticism of Mykhailo Minchakevych’s Works in The Son of Rus

The article analyses MykhaiLo Minchakevych's poems “Satire”, “Rozsvit”, “Roksolana”, “Separation”, dumka “Cross stone near Lyubchych”, love elegy “Dumka” from the manuscript collection The Son of Rus (1995), with the focus on the poetics of romanticism and imagery. The author compares the themes and motives in Mykhailo Minchakevych's poetry with those of other Romanticists (Markiyan Shashkevich, Mykola Petrenko). The poetics of Minchakevych's works was incluenced by the writing of Markiyan Shashkevych and other Galician authors; however, it demonstrates the similarities with East Ukrainian literature of the first half of the 19th century as well as European Romanticism. Mykhailo Minchakevych uses the so-called “word complexes” (D. Chyzhevsky), inherent to Ukrainian Romanticism. His desire to demonstrate the Rusinian great history is manifested in his reminiscences of the time of Kievan Rus and allusions to famous historical figures of the past. Similarly, the poet tries to show the influence of the Rusins on European history by mentioning the ties of blood between the Russian princes and European rulers. The poems “Satire”, “Rozsvit”, “Roksolana” convey the moods of “Russian Trinity” both through motives and imagery, thus revealing the influence of Markiyan Shashkevych. Mykhailo Minchakevych's poems are also close to folklore, which becomes evident in their motives, composition, and the use of repetitions and onomatopoeia. Minchakevych's poetry as a component of the “Russian Trinity” phenomenon reflects the processes that took place in the Ukrainian culture in the first half of the 19th century.

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