CHIVALRY TRADITION IN THE EUROPEAN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE ANDCHIVALRY PHENOMENON IN THE UKRAINIAN POLEMICAL PROSE OF THEEND OF XVI – BEGINNING OF XVII CENTURIES

Abstract

In the article the author attempts to elaborate on the problem and the notion of chivalry tradition, characteristic of the medieval European literature as well as on peculiarities of its development and its re-thinking in the Ukrainian polemical prose of XVI –XVII centuries. Besides, basing on the respectful historical, philological and cultural sources the author substantiates chivalry importance in culture and literature, the durability of the tradition from the middle ages to modern times.

The article provides comparative analysis of chivalry tradition in the context of the European medieval literature and the Ukrainian polemical prose of the end of XVI - beginning of XVII centuries as an essential study aspect. Furthermore, the article deals with the problem of chivalry tradition origins in both the medieval European literature and the Ukrainian polemic prose, baroque in particular.  The functioning of the tradition and its indication peculiarities are studied through the cultural, social and genre specific character of each identified time period in each of the mentioned national cultures. 

The article exposes mental and ethical criteria taken by the Ukrainian chivalry tradition and the ways how it has formed its own philosophy of the mentioned phenomenon. In particular, the author has determined common origin of the chivalric code and moral ideal for the medieval European and polemic Ukrainian literatures: antique, biblical, cultural and historic, where the latter is extremely important as it creates special features for the phenomenon depiction and individual development paths for each national culture.

 The research determines vectors for possible extension of the discussed scientific study in order to receive more required proofs and facts in support of the provided thoughts, its concretization or objection.