BAROQUE PLAY AND THE READER IN THE POETRY OF DEMIAN NALYVAIKO

Abstract

The article analyzes the poetic heritage of the Ostroh writer of the early seventeenth century Demian Nalyvaiko. Special attention is paid to the category of the reader in his works. The addressee of many poems is not a specific person but an abstract, conditional reader. It is to this reader that the author appeals already in the title of the acrostic poem “HRANYSYA ITALIAN” (1603), explaining how the text should be read. The poem mentions the Patriarch of Constantinople Anatoly (449–458). It is the first example of such a genre in Ukrainian literature. The glorification of Christianity is presented through a meditation-appeal to the cross, whose implicit addressee is likewise the reader. The poetry contains motifs of caring for one’s own soul and the life after death, which is an important feature of Demian Nalyvaiko’s poetics. The appeal to the reader is a characteristic feature of Baroque poetics: the literature of this period becomes noticeably more secular, with increasingly worldly themes. The appeals to the reader express philosophical reflections on the transience of life, which is emphasized by the image of a sea ship. The next appeal is a kind of directive on how to live correctly, although one cannot know God’s will, so the sole judge becomes one’s own conscience. The final appeal introduces the images of a garden and fruits as an allegory of parents and their children; Demian Nalyvaiko is the first to use this image. At the end of the work, the author advises demanding first of all from oneself rather than blaming others. This idea is innovative. In his counsels, the author varies between medieval scholasticism and the worldview of the modern era.