Interconfessional Polemics in a Model of Ukrainian Literary History

Abstract

Polemic texts on issues of Orthodox-Catholic relations occupy, for various reasons, a prominent place among publications in Ukrainian literature of the late 16th — early 17th centuries. Because of this, researchers of the history of Ukrainian literature continue to be interested in them. The history of the study of interconfessional polem ics depends to a large extent on political contexts, primarily on the national and religious policies of states. Objective interpretation of polem ical prose of the late 16th to the early 18th centuries, however, warrants exem ption from the influence of this state of affairs and the transfer of the focus of attention to the plane of literary communication. In such a context polemical texts can be seen as a manifestation of societal dialogue, reflecting the search of Ukrainian Baroque writers for their identity in the context of a civilizational dialogue between East and West and in geopolitical changes of the Reformation era.