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The article explores the development of the melodrama genre in various national literatures of Europe (French, English, German), and the role of I.P. Kotliarevsky’s play “Natalka Poltavka” in the context of leading tendencies in late 18th – early 19th century European drama. It is noted that “Natalka Poltavka” bears some features of the genre of melodrama, however they are transformed by the author, which indicates his creative approach to tradition and his active innovation. European melodrama is characterized by vivid descriptions of the characters’ feelings as backed by vibrant emotional situations and contrasts. At the same time, melodramatic plots would generally stay within the confines of family topics. In “Natalka Poltavka”, the plot is also based on a love story (love-separation-waiting-reunion of Natalka and Petro), though it is complicated by many family and social circumstances. In French and English melo- dramas, the fate of a girl or woman suffering from poverty and abuse on part of rich masters was a traditional plotline. However, while European melodramas took this plot to an exotic realm, I.P. Kotliarevsky made it a realistic one, deter- mined by particular life circumstances. As a genre, melodrama is characterized by breathtaking intrigue, constant dramatic tension, “shocking” situations and unexpected plot twists. In European melodramas this was generally achieved through the employment of mysterious situations. Compared to similar European plays, the secrets in I.P. Kotliarevsky’s play are not separated from reality. All the secrets in “Natalka Poltavka” are determined by the characters’ life circumstances and personal traits. European melodramas tend to lean towards strong moral imperatives and clear division between positive and negative characters. At first glance, “Natalka Poltavka” seems to fall in line with this tradition. Natalka and Petro are positive characters personifying kindness and human virtues, while Vozniy and Vyborniy seem to illustrate the evil threatening the young couple’s happiness. In the end, however, the viewers witness a flip of the traditional melodramatic model. Petro’s generosity moves the hearts of Vozniy and Vyborniy. In the end of “Natalka Poltavka”, we can see a happy-end (which is traditional for melodrama), combined with catharsis. However, the characters act like contemporary Poltava dwellers rather than heroes of Ancient Greek or Roman drama. In European melodramas we tend to see exaggerated depictions of the characters’ passions, emotions and suffering. This is also noticeable in I.P. Kotliarevsky’s play “Natalka Poltavka”. The characters’ psychological states are described through various kinds of intertext (folk songs or original lyrics and music created by the author). In contrast to European melodramas, I.P. Kotliarevsky introduced a number of folk songs into the structure of melodrama. While the lyrical elements in European melodrama were generally determined by love issues, I.P. Kotliarevsky enriched the play with new topics and motives through the musical and lyrical intertext, which allowed him to transcend the boundaries of a love story. The songs used in “Natalka Poltavka” deal with topics like love, history of the Ukrainian people, the hard fate of a Cossack, morals and sins of the world, human fate, relationships between generations, deep religious feelings and the like. Accordingly, the characters’ life stories unravel in the context of the past, present and future. Mentions of Ukrainian Cossacks’ participation in wars, of the Poltava Battle, of the challenges faced by the Ukrainian people are intertwined with contemporary events. In this way, time and space in the play are expanded. In “Natalka Poltavka”, not only individual life stories are described, but the fate of Ukrainian folk as a whole., У статті розглянуто розвиток жанру мелодрами в національних літера-турах Європи (французькій, англійській, німецький), а також місце п’єси «Наталка Полтавка» І. П. Котляревського в контексті провідних тенденційєвропейської драматургії кінця XVIII – початку XIX ст. Відзначено, що в «Наталці Полтавці» виявилися деякі ознаки жанру мелодрами, проте автор надав їм нового смислу та звучання, що зумовило його творчий підхід до традиції та активне новаторство. У французькій та англійській мелодрамах традиційною була тема долі дівчини чи жінки, які потерпали від бідності та багатих панів. Однак якщо у європейських мелодрамах цей сюжет був перенесений у площину екзотики, готики чи давнини, то І. П. Котляревський у «Наталці Полтавці» зробив цей сюжет більш реалістичним, зумовленим конкретними життєвими обставинами. Мелодрамі як жанру притаманні захоплива інтрига, постійне утримування глядачів у напрузі, ситуація «шоку», несподіваний розвиток подій. У європейських мелодрамах це досягалося здебільшого за допомогою таємничих обставин. Порівняно з подібними європейськими п’єсами, таємниці у п’єсі І. П. Котляревського не відірвані від реальності, вони зумовлені логікою життя й характерами персонажів. У мелодрамах Європи виявляється гіперболізоване зображення пристрастей, душевних переживань і страждань персонажів. Це простежується і в п’єсі І. П. Котляревського «Наталка Полтавка». Душевні стани персонажів розкривають народнопоетичний або авторський лірично-музичний інтертекст. Якщо у Європі лірична стихія мелодрами була зумовлена переважно любовними колізіями, то І. П. Котляревський збагатив п’єсу новими темами й мотивами за рахунок народних пісень, що дозволило письменникові вийти за межі суто любовного сюжету. У піснях із п’єси «Наталка Полтавка», крім кохання, ідеться про історичні шляхи українського народу, про тяжку долю козака, про чесноти й гріхи світу, про долю людську, про стосунки батьків і дітей, про єдність народу в любові до Бога тощо. У такий спосіб розширюються художній час і простір твору. У «Наталці Полтавці» змальовано не лише життєві історії окремих людей, а й історичний шлях українського народу.

Статтю присвячено дослідженню способів художнього відтворення національної специфіки у драматичних творах Григора Лужницького. Увагу приділено аналізові особливостей вираження знакових світоглядних та морально-етичних пріоритетів у драмах. Досліджено образи дійових осіб у драмах Григора Лужницького., The article is devoted to the study of artistic representation of national peculiar fetures in the dramatic works by Hruhir Luzhnytskyi. The great attention is paid to the analysis of the specific features in the expression of the significance of the ideological and moral-ethical priorities in dramas. The images of heroes in the dramas by Hruhir Luzhnytskyi are depicted; the peculiarities of dramatic conflict are defined.Grygor Luzhnytskyi’s drama discovers the main features of Ukrainian mentality and represents them in the context of the idea of national liberation. In the works by Hruhir Luzhnytskyi figurative images that embody the characteristic features of the national worldview are represented.Hryhir Luzhnytskyi’s literary works became an object for the thorough research which was carried out by S. Horob and where he paid a lot of attention to the definition of stylistic and genre features of the playwright’s works, as well as the the research of the originality of his religious and historical dramas. S. Rudnitskyi found out the ideological and artistic features of Hruhir Luzhnytskyi to be dramatic and creative.The purpose of the work is to define the main artistic principles of Hruhir Luzhnytskyi’s drama. The purpose is determined by the study of genre parameters of the playwright’s literary works; historical problems in dramas; outline the main ways of deploying a dramatic conflict; elucidation the main artistic signs of characters in the literary works by Hryhir Luzhnytskyi.In the dramas “Oh Moroz, Morozenko ...”, “Knights of the Night”, “The Sichovyi Court (Olexij Popovych)”, Grigor Luzhnytskyi artistically presents the concepts that are decisive for the national consciousness. The author identifies the historical context by correlating the specific characteristics of ancient times and timeless ideals. The playwright chooses the iconic historical figures as the object of artistic creation. These figures embody the ideas of the national and personal self-determination. The heroes in the literary works by Hryhir Luzhnitskyi solve complex problems of the essential formation in the projection on the Ukrainian reality, which stipulates the symbolic meaning of the images. The conflict in the drama unfolds in the social and historical plane, which defines a deep understanding of the phenomena being displayed. Completion of a dramatic conflict in Hryhir Luzhnitskyi’s dramas means different forms of implementation of the declared ideas.

У статті розглянуто особливості формування драми як літературного жанру, автор виокремлює різновиди драми, сформовані в європейській літературі в різні періоди її розвитку. Установлено, що теоретичні основи драматизму сформульовані ще Аристотелем, модифікація особливостей драматизму відображена протягом історичного розвитку літературного процесу. Висвітлено специфіку композиції драми, а також особливості драматичного конфлікту. Особливу увагу приділено «аристотелівському» та «неаристотелівському» різновидам драматургії, пере­ ходу від традиційного театру до «нової драми» та подальших перетворень драматичного роду. Розвиток драматичних жанрів розглянуто в контексті формування літературних тенденцій, стилів та індивідуальної творчої свідомості., The article deals with the specifics of the formation of drama as a literary genre, varieties of drama, which have been formed in European literature at different stages of development. The theoretical foundations of the drama formulated by Aristotle as well as the modification of the features of the drama during the history of the development of literature are determined. The specifics of the composition of the drama, as well as the features of the dramatic conflict are explored. The composition of the dramatic work reveals the individual style of the artist, the peculiarity of his/her creative manner. The composition of drama serves the embodiment of the ideological and artistic design of the writer, reflects his/her aesthetic concept, artistic and world­view quest.Particular attention is paid to the `Aristotelian` and `non­Aristotelian` drama, the transition from the traditional theater to the `new drama` and the further transformations of the dramatic genus.In the era of romanticism the drama gained new signs. The entire composition of the romantic drama was aimed primarily at the disclosure of the internal state of the individual, its conflict with the world, society by itself. Therefore, the inner action becomes basic, it is subject to the external action. Great importance of romance was given to the depiction of the place of action, nature, symbols, linguistic means. In the era of romanticism the drama has undergone a significant influence of lyric poetry, as evidenced, for example, by the work by J. Byron, who developed the genre of the dramatic poem.The development of realism in the XIX century also affected the dramatic kind of literature. The drama became more analytic, it explored the relationship between person and the environment, so the image of the environment came to the fore. Heroes appeared as certain social types. The playwrights faithfully represented the images and the situation noting the typical characteristic of life.Since the end of the XIX century writers were looking for new forms of art, which led to the birth and active development of the ʺnew dramaʺ, which according to B. Shaw, `radically changed its attitude to the problems of ethics and aesthetics.` `New drama` is closer to the present, to the inner world of person. In the old theater was talking about a separate tragedy in life, then in the new one ­ the general tragedy of life and of all mankind. The hero appeared not as a social type, but as a `spiritual symptom of the era,` whose individuality, experience and feeling reflect the general atmosphere of the era. Internal movements of the human soul acquired generalized meaning, became the criterion for assessing the philosophical, social and moral problems of being. The theater turned into a place of ideological discussions and spiritual impulses. The external action gave way to the internal, the conflicts were extremely complicated,an important role was played by the subtext, the means of lyricism. Using the achievements of realism and naturalism, the `new drama` persistently developed the principles of modernism – symbolism, neo­romanticism, impressionism, expressionism, surrealism, and so on. G. Ibsen, M. Meerlinck, A. Strindberg, G. Hauptmann, A. Chekhov, M. Meerlinck, B. Shaw, Lesya Ukrainka, V. Vynnychenko, M. Kulish and others were among the origins of the `new drama`.According the development of modernism, the composition of dramatic works is updated at the expense of time and space displacement, the principles of free assembly, the predominance of internal action, methods of lyrising drama, etc. Symbolistic drama, expressive drama, grotesque drama, intellectual drama and so on are the features of the composition.The development of dramatic genres is considered in the context of the formation of literary trends, styles and individual­author consciousness.

The article deals with the analysis of ritual elements of myth in the English baroque plays. The mythopoeia of W. Shakespeare’s “Winter Fairy Tale”, F. Beaumont and J. Fletcher’s “The Maid’s Tragedy” is under the investigation as these plays are considered to be deeply discussed in the foreign literary critics. Moreover, “The Maid’s Tragedy” is found out as the best play of F. Beaumont’s and J. Fletcher’s “canon”. The English early baroque is characterized by the particular artistist’s “view on the world through the myth” that can be revealed at the textual levels and combined in the mythopoeic system. The center of composition and plot in the analyzed play can be Mask based on the ancient myth which can be submitted as the installed part of the play as well as its frame, its function is entertaining. Also the ritual elements of myth about Cynthia are important for the characteristics of images where the mythological characters from Mask have some traits in common with the human characters in the play. The main rituals in the play are wedding, the murder of king. At the poetical level the dramatists appeal to the myth in similes and metaphorical appeals in order to emphasize the importance of the event and to attract the audience’s attention at the eternal human problems which cannot be easily solved even by gods., Молодші колеги В. Шекспіра по драматургічному цеху в театрі «Глобус» – Френсіс Бомонт (1584–1616) і Джон Флетчер (1579–1625) були популярними письменниками в Англії, проте менш відомими у світовій драматургії, ніж їхній сучасник В. Шекспір. П’єси Ф. Бомонта і Дж. Флетчера є втіленням раннього англійського бароко. Драматурги Ф. Бомонт і Дж. Флетчер були авторами п’єс для «приватних» театрів Лондона, які вирізнялися вишуканою публікою, куди був дозволений вхід лише окремим вельможам, науковій еліті, студентам корпорації адвокатів (the Inns of Court). На час правління королеви Єлизавети та короля Джеймса припадає розквіт творчої діяльності Дж. Флетчера та Ф. Бомонта. У сучасному літературознавстві стверджується думка про те, що це був найсприятливіший період для розвитку англійської драми (“the greatest age of English drama”, Блейкмор Г. Еванс. У 1642 році пуританам удалося залучитися підтримкою в англійському парламенті задля заборони театральної діяльності в Англії впродовж наступних 18 років.