Epigram on the Pages of "Literaturna Ukraina"

The article covers epigrams specifics that were published on the pages of the newspaper “Literaturna Ukraina” (“Literary Ukraine”) during the last two years. The process of an epigram emergence and development in Ukrainian literature and journalism is comprehended on the basis of the delicate factual material, theoretical developments in the field of genre studies. Historical conditions of the literature development in Ukraine determined its continuous connection with the high artistic culture of the antiquity era — the cradle of European civilization. Through the translated literature of Byzantine and Bulgarian origin, the scribes of Kyivan Rus had information about ancient mythology, philosophy and literature, the fact of which were epigrammatic texts. The article briefly reveals the genesis of the epigram in Ukraine from ancient times to the present day.

The emphasis is placed on the fact that in journalism an epigram was started on the pages of “Shershen” (1906), the first Ukrainian-language satirical magazine in the Russian Empire. Epigrams regularly appeared in Ukrainian periodicals of Soviet times. Genre features of an epigram are refined as structural integrity with the established laws and mechanisms of internal processes.

The analysis showed that on the pages of “Literaturna Ukraina” during 2017-2018 epigrams were regularly published in the headings “Ostap Vyshnya Club”, “Vyshnyak” and “Epigrams of the Week”. About a hundred epigrams were published. Mostly these were political epigrams. Among the most active authors were S. Borschevskyi, V. Combel, V. Shulha, M. Strelbytskyi. Partly, there appeared texts of this genre, belonging to the world literature classics, such as R. Burns.

The genre typology of epigrams, published in the newspaper “Literaturna Ukraina”, differs from the political “addressless”, to epigram-obituary to “spring sketching” (a combination of lyrical and satirical jets in one two-axis).

The study of the organizational and publishing history of the “Literaturna Ukraina” newspaper and epigrams analysis published on its pages during the last two years allows to assert that this weekly occupies a significant place in Ukrainian journalism at the beginning of the XXI century.