The Image of Homo Heroicus in the Poems of the Collection «I Was. I Am. I Will Be» by U. Karatkevich

Abstract

A comprehensive study of the features of the concept of personality in the poems by U. Karatkevich from the collection “I Was. I Am. I Will Be” is presented. It is found out that the lyrical hero of the works of this collection is a heroic person (warrior, hero, fighter, lover, knight), the bearer of the heroic ethos of homo heroicus. The constituents of the image are the characteristic motifs of Romanticism – deep psychologism, the tragedy of a lonely person, the desire for freedom, liberation from physical and spiritual oppression (intertextual connections with the work by J. Byron), as well as the knightly medieval aesthetics of serving the Fair Lady, sublime love, and courtship. A large number of lexical units in the author’s poems are related to the military sphere (nominations of various types of weapons, warrior’s ammunition (mainly knightly medieval equipment), definitions of military situations, a specific chronotope, characteristic emotions of grief, suffering, and hatred). The conclusions are drawn that U. Karatkevich creates a peculiar character of an almost legendary national hero – a noble patriot, a fighter against tyranny, a courageous defender of the people and the Fatherland.