Transformation of the medieval chivalric romance in the poem of Lesya Ukrainka "Isolda Biloruka"

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of ways of modifying the ideas of the chivalric romance in Lesya Ukrainka's poem "Isolda Biloruka". The key episodes of the medieval romance about Tristan and Isolde are identified. The secondary medieval motif about Isolde Beloruka, which the poet embodied in the poem, is outlined. The peculiarities of the artistic interpretation of the motif about Isolde of the White Hands by the Ukrainian poetess are determined: the secondary heroine of the medieval romance becomes the main heroine of the poem; the main plot vicissitudes are shown through the perception of the heroine; the inner world of the heroine is shown through the prism of her reactions to unrequited love; the fantastic transformation of the heroine reveals her essence more deeply; the author depicts the ambiguity of the heroine's actions.

It is shown in the article that Lesya Ukrainka has created a poem in which the medieval motif about Isolde of the White Hands acquired significant expression and reinterpretation. The author shifted attention to the reproduction of the ambiguous inner world of Isolda Biloruka, which is represented by the intense experience of the heroine, which have a sufficiently expressive negative color. The analysis proves that the poetess depicts the love story through the prism of the heroine's worldview, emphasizes the external context, since the development of events and character relationships indirectly leads to the fact that unrequited love turns into a desire for a kind of retribution for unreciprocity.

The motif of love in the poem is reproduced in different projections, as the characters' feelings have different directions and intensities. For Tristan, love for Isolda Zolotokosa is an insurmountable force that has taken over his entire being. The feeling of the hero takes the form of a kind of obsession, on which the hero is completely concentrated and which is strengthened by the impossibility of realizing these feelings. In comparison, the feelings Isolda Biloruka for Tristan are inextricably connected with self-sacrifice and suffering because of unrequited feelings. The analysis shows that heroes have quite different ideas about feeling and human relations.