Artistic Temporality in Shevchenko’s Lyrics: The Compositional Aspect

Abstract

Artistic temporality in a work has two functions: the semantic – as a time motif, and compositional – as a means of building a model of the world at all of its levels. The author of the article discusses how this description is evident in the lyrical works of Taras Shevchenko. As an author (including the category of “proper author”), Shevchen­ko does not convey the real course of events of a historical period or event, but rather experiences time by assigning events in his mind to a certain temporality – consisting of the past, present, and future, with their interplay, movement, and juxtapositions, imbuing this temporal scheme into his works on a thematic level, which differs according to genre – the works of Shevchenko clearly show a noticeable connection between temporal composition and the genre variety of the poetry, with various resultant com­binations. Thus, artistic temporality in Shevchenko’s lyrical works is a significant factor of the “complex structure of meaning” (Lotman).