The Question of Genre and Historical Contexts of the Lviv Prosphonema of 1591

Abstract

The article updates a long-term discussion about the genre of the early baroque Prosphonema of 1591 (the first known literary work that came out of the Lviv Dormition Brotherhood) and a number of other texts from the end of the 16th to the first half of the 17th century. The gradual formation of scientific understanding of the genre polysemantics of early Baroque works, along with their belonging to the literary and proto-theatrical spheres is traced. At the same time, the article highlights the direct relationship between the panegyric declamation constructions of the Prosphonema to the actual history of the judicial confrontation between the Lviv Dormition Brotherhood and the episcopate in 1590–1591. Such historical contribution may aspire to a separate methodological status in the study of declamatory and panegyric literary forms.