HISTORICAL AND LITERARY ASPECTS OF THE WRITERS’ EPISTOLARY

Abstract

The article concentrates on attempts to trace the main historical and literary aspects of writers’ private correspondence from antiquity to the second half of the nineteenth century. It is emphasized that tradition of literary epistolography originated from Ancient Greece and Rome and private correspondence in Ukraine had deep genesis and ancient traditions. In ancient Ukrainian literature epistolary was one of the most common genres. Obviously its formation took place in the period of Kyiv state. The next rise of Ukrainian epistolary is associated with the names of Renaissance humanists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Y. Kotermak (Drohobych) and S. Orikhovsky. Escalation of national and religious confrontation in the Ukrainian lands in the late sixteenth century led to the development of polemical literature, through which the epistolary genre continued its historical development. Ukrainian epistolary heritage of the XVII - early XVIII centuries is represented by correspondence of Hetmans P. Konashevich (Sagaidachny), I. Mazepa, P. Orlyk and others. Beginning with the 18th century, it is possible to trace the multifaceted process of the Ukrainian epistolary genre’s formation in details. Since then, epistolary texts reflect characteristic features of the national literary language evolution on the basis of linguistic element, actively develop their genre and stylistic features. In his work "About Rhetorical Art" F. Prokopovych for the first time focuses on epistolography - considers inherent characteristics of literary correspondence, tries to trace its structure and distinguish its types. A bright example of Ukrainian epistolography of the eighteenth century is a letter heritage of G. Skovoroda, which occupies a prominent place in the philosophical and literary heritage of the wandering thinker. A unique phenomenon of Ukrainian literature of the XIX century is Taras Shevchenko’s private correspondence, which impresses with the multitude and variety of recipients.