Cyclical Development of Culture
Chyzhevskyi's "theory of cultural waves": culture as a wave-like, continuous transition from one pole to another — humanity periodically returning to, and reinterpreting, constants from previous eras.
This article presents a comprehensive analysis of Leonid Horlach's verse novels within the context of the Baroque tradition in Ukrainian culture and contemporary literary trends. The relevance of the study arises from the need for a fresh reading of artistic texts on Cossack themes through the prism of universal cultural meanings, as well as the necessity of understanding the interaction between Baroque worldviews and the poetics of modern Ukrainian literature. The focus is on the problem of interpreting cultural universals and the specifics of their artistic embodiment in L. Horlach's work from the perspective of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
The object of the study comprises L. Horlach's verse novels Clean Field (1990), Ruin (or the Life and Tragedy of Ivan Mazepa) (2004), and Mamai (2010), which are devoted to the Baroque period in Ukrainian history, recreate Cossack themes, and at the same time demonstrate a complex syncretism of diverse artistic traditions. The distinctive nature of the writer's work lies in the combination of a traditional syllabo-tonic verse system — shaped by the influence of the classical Ukrainian poetic tradition — with the latest artistic strategies characteristic of literature from the second half of the 20th century to the early 21st century.
The analysis reveals that the key worldview themes in the novels are Baroque conceptions of the world as a complex, contradictory and dynamic system in which opposites are united — life and death, the earthly and the heavenly, the physical and the spiritual. Motifs such as the search for one's calling, travel, memory, historical continuity and national identity play a significant role. At the same time, these themes, whilst recurring, are subject to the author's interpretation, which takes into account the contemporary cultural context and the reader's changed perception of the world.
In the novel Mamai, the image of the Cossack as the embodiment of national identity and spiritual freedom is portrayed with particular clarity; this corresponds to the tradition of the folk painting Cossack Mamai, whilst at the same time taking on new shades of meaning in the modern context. L. Horlach's artistic sensibility, as well as the aesthetics and poetics of his novels, are shaped by the influence of both the Baroque tradition and later literary movements — in particular "chimerical prose" and postmodernism — evident in the use of irony and the grotesque, the blending of different stylistic registers, and a tendency towards intertextuality and the play on cultural codes.
The study also addresses how L. Horlach's novels are received from the perspective of the modern reader. The detached reception of the early 21st century allows for a fresh interpretation of Baroque themes, revealing their relevance in the contemporary cultural context and leading to a re-evaluation of traditional images and motifs, which acquire new meanings in the light of modern socio-cultural challenges.
Cultural texts intertwine with the lives of every individual, shaping worldview and values, prompting self-reflection and an awareness of one's cultural identity. The study traces continuity and antinomy through dualistic-cyclical concepts of cultural-historical change.
In European humanities of the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, dualistic-cyclical concepts of cultural-historical change gained prominence (F. Nietzsche, G. Hegel, O. Spengler, A. Toynbee). In the domestic context, these ideas found their most striking expression in D. Chyzhevskyi's concept of the "theory of cultural waves," according to which this process is a wave-like, continuous transition from one pole to another [Chyzhevskyi, 2003, p. 354]. Among the key fundamental oppositions that defined the classical and Baroque poles were the categories of rational / irrational, Apollonian / Dionysian, monological / dialogical, and sacred / secular.
In this context, the Baroque transcends the boundaries of the specific historical period of the 17th and 18th centuries and is perceived as a philosophical category and a worldview model — E. d'Ors's idea of the "eternal Baroque," and a meta-historical constant (Henri Focillon). T. Hunko's work The Concept of the Baroque and the Poetics of the Novels of Eugenio d'Ors [2014] brings to the fore the view of the Baroque as a permanent unit of the historical and cultural process and the concept of cultural progress as a shift in binary oppositions, enabling us to understand why humanity constantly returns to constants that became widespread in previous eras and reinterprets them.
A schematic of D. Chyzhevskyi's "theory of cultural waves" — culture as a wave-like, continuous transition between a Classical pole and a Baroque pole, with the recurring Baroque resurgences the article foregrounds.
Illustrative schematic of the described cyclical concept; the crests mark the Baroque-leaning turning points discussed in the article (the 17th–18th c.; the 1920s; the 1960s "Thaw"/Sixtiers; the turn of the 20th–21st c.).
A broad scholarly conversation frames the study. O. Kulikova and N. Lysenko analyse the connection between Taras Shevchenko's legacy and Ukrainian Baroque literature [Kulikova, Lysenko, 2023]; O. Novyk focuses on the transformation of the Baroque conception of death in the Romantics [Novyk, 2014]; T. Holovan describes V. Barka's Baroque genre forms, syntactic similarities and universalism [Holovan, 2003]; and T. Zhovnovska notes V. Shevchuk's use of the Baroque tradition in imagery and poetics [Zhovnovska, 2000]. A. Shishkova traces the Baroque worldview in Yu. Lypa's metaphysical discourse [Shishkova, 2008], O. Korotkova examines M. Rylsky's lyrical hero [Korotkova, 2015], S. Polyakova draws parallels between the Baroque and the depiction of reality as hell in B. Kharchuk [Polyakova, 2008], and V. Hural links Baroque duality to M. Kryvtsov's poetry [Hural, 2024].
O. Yurchuk's studies [2007; 2008] stand out for conceptual depth: Baroque themes were shaped by crisis, and the patterns formed in that era are revisited at later turning points marked by a re-evaluation of heritage, the question of national identity, introspection, a sense of tragic doom, and the search for new ways of engaging with reality.
The novelty of the present study lies in being the first attempt to identify the influence of the ideas of the Sixtiers, and the poetics of chimerical and postmodern prose, on the representation of the Baroque worldview and universal cultural meanings in literary texts on Cossack themes — using the works of L. Horlach as a representative of that generation. When analysing art from the late 20th to the 21st century, the study draws on dialogic discourse and the theory of intertextuality, recalling R. Barthes's tenet that any text is an intertext in which other texts are present in more or less recognizable forms [see: Barthes, 1973, p. 78].
Chyzhevskyi's "theory of cultural waves": culture as a wave-like, continuous transition from one pole to another — humanity periodically returning to, and reinterpreting, constants from previous eras.
More than a 17th–18th c. period: a philosophical category and worldview model — d'Ors's "eternal Baroque," Focillon's meta-historical constant — perceiving the world as complex, contradictory and dynamic.
A counterbalance to the tragic, elegiac worldview and the fear of death: laughter, attention to physicality, the rejection of taboos, feasting and, ultimately, carnivalisation.
Artists who debuted in the 1960s, driven to restore the continuity of national history; a confessional mode and a critical-constructive attitude toward the past oriented by a moral ideal of the future.
Conventionality, myths and fantastical elements, intertextuality, distorted chronotope, grotesqueness, and interwoven stylistic layers — a transitional phenomenon moving toward postmodernist aesthetics.
Calabrese & Ndalianis: a "spirit of the age" valorizing instability, polydimensionality and change over totality — spectacle, intertextuality, play with time and space, and seriality.
To identify worldview dominants and universals and determine the specifics of their functioning within a literary work.
To establish typological links between Baroque poetics, chimerical prose and postmodernism, and their manifestations in the novels.
Aimed at identifying the interaction between texts and cultural codes that "shine through" Horlach's verse novels.
Providing a deeper interpretation of the ideological and semantic level of the works for the distanced reader of the 21st century.
Horlach's superimposition of contemporary creative strategies — the Sixtiers, chimerical prose, postmodernism — onto traditional syllabo-tonic verse, marked by a "testamentary-rustic" discourse and Shevchenko's traditions.
The Sich as an autonomous military mini-state rooted in folk traditions — an artistic encyclopaedia of Cossack values read through the lens of European chivalry.
A confessional, retrospective drama of statelessness and the collapse of state-building plans, charged with the post-totalitarian experience of the author's generation.
A chimerical journey through time with the Wise Old Man archetype — the kobzar as spiritual guide, mediator and guarantor of national revival.
The three Cossack-themed verse novels and the historical figures they reconstruct — from the Sich (1990) to the Ruin (2004) to the timeless folk myth of Mamai (2010).
Fundamental notions of human existence manifested through Horlach's system of images, motifs and symbols.
Since the spiritual culture of a historical era is reflected indirectly through a character's life story, the protagonist's evolution and inner dynamics serve as the primary indicator of whether the writer's artistic worldview corresponds to the era described. The depiction of historical events through the character's consciousness became a hallmark of the Sixtiers, who emphasised the unity of the personal and the social. A key feature of the "Thaw" literature is its confessional nature — candidness, expressiveness, and the use of historical symbols to make sense of the present, with loyalty to national culture raised with particular urgency. L. Kostenko's Berestechko is the striking model of which Horlach's lyric-epic works can be regarded as successors.
The confessional character is ensured by a recurring compositional device — artistic framing: the prologue and epilogue depict the protagonist in their twilight years, on the threshold between life and death, whilst the main body unfolds retrospectively as the character's "memories" and reflections. The device resonates with the Baroque fascination with mysterious psychological phenomena — visions and revelations that arise in oblivion, drowsiness or dreams [Makarov, 1994, p. 73]. Indicative is the section of Ruin devoted to Ivan Mazepa's deathbed visions: the spirits of Kochubey, Palii and Motria, his mother, and the personified image of Ukraine.
The protagonist in twilight years, between life and death.
The character's "memories" and reflections — pre-death catharsis.
Confession to oneself and, through narration, to the reader.
The author reinterprets the holy sacrament of confession: despite the Christian ritual's imagery — candles, bells, the white colour — priority is given to confession to oneself and to the reader over the priest's forgiveness. I. Sirko, idealised in the spirit of the European chivalric myth, dies in a place sacred to Ukrainians — an apiary, surrounded by bees symbolising spiritual purity and the path to paradise. The collective trauma of the post-totalitarian past — fear of one's own thoughts, ancestry and history — informs Mazepa's portrayal as a man unable to alter the established order.
The artist criticises not only the mindless execution of the Russian tsar's orders but also the dishonest decisions of one's own superiors. Anticipating moral dilemmas of the modern democratic world, Horlach infuses the episodes of Palii's treacherous arrest and the "fratricidal" execution of Kochubey and Iskra. A recurring theme is the need for a "new Bohdan" — a resolute leader — in which a subconscious critique of the political figures of independent Ukraine can be discerned.
Thus the retrospective narrative and artistic framing — with their emphasis on pre-death catharsis — lend Horlach's lyric epic a confessional character. This dominant mood, characteristic of the Sixtiers, foregrounds the author's own views on the problems of Ukrainian society in the 20th and 21st centuries: post-totalitarian trauma, the lack of a strong political leader, the destructive influence of authority, discord and betrayal, and feelings of loneliness — bringing the present day closer, on a worldview and emotional level, to the turbulent Baroque era.
The 1990 publication of Clean Field, depicting the Zaporizhian Sich as an autonomous military mini-state rooted in folk traditions, was a natural development: the foreboding of the Soviet Union's collapse and the debunking of socialist tenets sparked an interest in Ukrainian statehood. The historiosophical concept of interpreting the Zaporozhian Cossacks as a later form of European chivalry forms the basis of the novel, fitting the late-20th / early-21st-century trend of revising established dogmas and distinguishing genuine realities from propaganda.
Against D. Bilous's list of medieval knightly traits — noble birth, class-based etiquette, ritualism, courage combined with unwavering faith, and devotion to ideals [Bilous, 2003, p. 76] — Horlach, in keeping with the Soviet myth of former serfs, omits the question of origins and does not emphasise Sirko's noble lineage. Instead he foregrounds behavioural norms and their ritualistic nature, making the novel an artistic encyclopaedia of Sich traditions.
In historiography there is a tendency to idealise the heroic defender against the evidence: in "A Brief Account of Sirkov's Deeds," A. Makarov highlights the character's "ruthlessness, ferocity and cruelty" [Makarov, 1994, p. 129]. Yet Horlach portrays Sirko as a man of integrity, a champion of a sacred cause, underpinned by the universal motif of the chyste pole (clean field) that gives the work its title and embodies an unbreakable code of honour. The lexeme "field" (rather than "steppe") carries fertility and fruitfulness, highlighting the purposefulness of the struggle.
The idealisation of the people's defender responds to the postmodern crisis of personal and national identity, reminding Ukrainians of values established as far back as the 17th century. The myth of the "golden age" is manifested through the idealisation of B. Khmelnytsky's rule, used as a criterion for the success of a statesman and prompting reflection on the present — conveying the need for a strong leader as Ukraine defends its independence.
The folk paintings hanging in the "red corner" of ordinary homes and in the residences of Cossack officers formed the basis for the folk myth of Cossack Mamai — a motif that spread from painting to engravings, interior design and household objects, inspiring visual arts, sculpture, literature and cinema. Horlach's appeal to this sacred image is evidence of a spiritual hunger and a desire to reclaim cultural heritage. The text demonstrates the distortion of temporal and spatial parameters typical of chimerical (and later postmodern) novels: a stable narrative frame — Mamai's conversations with the writer's alter ego — encloses a main body linked by the motif of a journey into the past.
The focus shifts from the Cossack warrior to the bandura player / kobzar — "a thinker, poet, mediator, and creator of heroic druzhynna poetry" [Kurylenko, 2015, p. 151]. Horlach elevates Mamai to a timeless level, extending the artist's mission to all creators, and endows the image with the traits of the Wise Old Man: there are no heroic battles, but episodes of mentorship and guidance.
Unlike the omniscient narration of Clean Field and Ruin, Mamai leans toward the English-language verse-novel model, narrating sections from the perspective of different characters — a deliberate undermining of the reader's trust through the motif of dream / vision.
Distribution of named chapters by narrating voice, as enumerated in the article.
"The Enchantment of the Young Woman," "In Paradise," "Mamai in Kaniv," "Mamai in the Verkhovna Rada," "Mamai at Narcissus."
"Night Vision," "In the Garden," "At Makar's," "In Trakhtemyriv," "In Hell."
"At the Apiary" — an internal monologue without punctuation, in second-person address, transitioning into the omniscient author's perspective.
The deconstruction of the Hero archetype is linked to the neutralisation of aggressive imagery: the device of devaluing the military symbol reflects an axiological system formed after the tragedies of the 20th and 21st centuries, in which humanism, tolerance and diplomacy come to the fore. Mamai avoids open confrontation and flees on horseback; in accordance with chivalric tradition he regards his horse as an equal and faithful companion. Paradoxically, it is the horse that realises the aggressive code, while the Cossack is assigned the role of observer and thinker.
The work's intertextual breadth ranges from comparisons with the folk-painting source, Dantean descriptions of hell and paradise, and Kotlyarevsky's burlesque-travesty style, to the continuation of O. Ilchenko's traditions. The clearest influence is Taras Shevchenko's poem The Dream: the Kobzar is mentioned repeatedly, the dream / vision motif and the St Petersburg scenes echo his satire. Beneath a "light-hearted" narrative tone, Horlach masks sharp criticism of the present — the chapter "Mamai in the Verkhovna Rada," the conflict with the criminal authority Babai, and the composite image of the weak, selfish leader Narcissus. In the epilogue, the figure of Mamai becomes a metaphysical "eternal idea," a mediator between God and humankind who can exist only on condition of faith in him.
Religiousness is one of the defining features of the Ukrainian national worldview. The spread of atheism in Ukraine was driven by external factors — the deliberate policy of the Soviet authorities — rather than an internal crisis of faith; an instinctive backlash followed, as Ukrainians continued to baptise their children in secret. In Horlach's depiction of the Baroque-era religious struggle one can discern a similarity with the aspiration to defend, in word and deed, time-honoured Ukrainian national values at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Elements of the myth of the creation of the world, the creation of man from clay, the afterlife of hell and paradise, and the conception of God as the source and measure of beauty can be read both as a reflection of the era's worldview and as a subtle reminder of the fundamentals of Christian mythology. In times of crisis, religion returns as a mediator and a means of coming to terms with difficult situations, while the theme of predestination unfolds the fatalism inherent in a religious worldview.
For warriors of both eras, the conviction that the soul is immortal is paramount. The episode of old Petro's suicide mission at Perekop correlates not only with the heroic deeds of the Second World War but also with the feats of recent years — in particular the self-sacrifice of Vitalii Skakun. The depiction of heaven and hell is not canonical but continues the traditions of Kotlyarevsky's Aeneid, with overt pro-Ukrainian subjectivity, while paradise itself is filled with national specificity — Ukrainian landscapes, flowers and bees.
The church, as a cultural universal, signifies sacred space, salvation and spiritual elevation. Horlach reinterprets it from a 21st-century perspective: the image of the ruined church becomes a symbol of the desecration of Ukrainian soil, achieving the greatest possible impact by elevating the tragedy of ruin to a timeless level.
Thus the representation of the struggle for the Orthodox faith and its cultic elements — biblical mythology, heaven and hell, the motifs of the garden, the Last Judgement and sacred objects — is enriched with national specificity and elevated to a timeless level, inviting the reader's reflection on the similarities between the Baroque era and the present day: the destruction of the sacred in demolished churches, the betrayal of certain clergy, and the soldiers' willingness to sacrifice their lives for sacred values.
The low Baroque is directly linked to the need to counterbalance the tragic, elegiac worldview and to create a defence mechanism against the fear of death — laughter, attention to physicality, the rejection of taboos, feasting and, ultimately, carnivalisation, in which one can discern a natural similarity to the dominant features of the postmodern era. Laughter serves a life-affirming function, while Horlach employs irony — typical of the late 20th and early 21st centuries — to devalue and dismantle the tragic aura around traumatic events, such as the Treaty of Pereyaslav, deliberately "taking it off its pedestal."
Existential pursuits in both the Baroque and modern eras bring the universal of the banquet to the fore, with a protective function (celebration and hedonism against the fear of death) and a liberating one (freedom from social and etiquette constraints). The description of the tavern banquet in Clean Field combines jokes, singing, music, dancing and a lavish feast; continuing the traditions of Kotlyarevsky's Aeneid, Horlach employs the technique of amplification.
The full realisation of the banquet's universal nature requires attention to corporeality: jokes about basic bodily needs usually taboo in "high" literature, and the utmost closeness between human and animal — the horse Sultan speaks, laughs, dances and feasts. The novel features a recurring theme of costume-changing undergone by devils, saints and God himself. Mamai's encounter and conversation with God — at first glance a desacralisation — in fact accurately reflects the Baroque tradition [Myshanych, 1983, p. 12]: humorous and satirical elements are not mockery but a way of bringing the "higher power" closer to ordinary people, presenting it as more accessible and understandable.
Horlach's recreation of the low Baroque in Mamai and Clean Field reveals a well-established Ukrainian tradition of countering the fear of death and frustration through humour, an emphasis on the physical, and hedonism — at once a strategy for authentically depicting the Baroque era and a transposition of his generation's experience of overcoming fear into the artistic text. The functioning of a Baroque carnival in Mamai, close in spirit to the postmodern, is explained both by the influence of leading artistic trends and by the concept of cyclical cultural development.
In embodying Baroque themes in Clean Field, Mazepa and Mamai, L. Horlach goes beyond merely depicting the Baroque as a historical and stylistic phenomenon of the 17th–18th centuries; he projects it onto contemporary experience and worldview, presenting it as a distinctive cultural code of Ukrainian history and mentality. Since the artist's axiological system and poetics developed in the 1960s, his creative concept is occupied by the need to actualise ontological memory and historical experience, and to create a model of history as a space of spiritual confrontation and existential choice. Antinomy, tragic tension, and the fusion of the sacred and the profane characterise the crisis-ridden period of the struggle for identity — both in the 17th century and at the turn of the 20th and 21st.
The emotional resonance between the worldview of Horlach's generation and that of the modern Ukrainian — with its Baroque undertones — is brought to the fore through the lyric-epic genre, creating an additional layer of contemporary interpretation: historical experience is read through the concept of repetition and caution, whilst the tragedies of the past resonate with the present. A telling example is the tragic worldview of Mazepa (originally Ruin), in which the writer fills the text about the collapse of Mazepa's state-building plans with his own experience of the destruction of value systems and the frustration of the 1980s and 1990s.
Sirko (Clean Field) and Cossack Mamai answer a crisis-era need for ideals — reviving the bandura player as a national archetype, even seen today in graffiti and pixelated Cossacks.
Biblical mythology, Christian symbolism, election and fatalism — together with the vital potential of the popular Baroque — read as a spiritual quest in a crisis situation, in both the 17th and 21st centuries.
The elimination of the aggressive connotations of weapons is interpreted as a warning to Ukrainians to defend their own interests — a warning that has proved prophetic.
The Baroque coexistence of high and low styles re-emerges in chimerical prose and postmodernism: myths, fantastical elements, unreliable narration, intertextuality, deformed chronotope.