On the Definitions of Baroque and Romanticism in the Period of Totalitarianism

Abstract

The author describes numerous bans placed on the literature and culture of Ukrainian Baroque in the period of totalitarianism. She argues that there is still an acute need to make a new approach to the literature of the Baroque and Romanticism eras, especially to the works by such outstanding authors as Taras Shevchenko, Mykola Gogol, Mykola Kostomarov, Panteleimon Kulish, Ivan Franko, Alexander Potebnja, Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky. Ukrainian Romanticism, as depicted by the author, is in fact different from the European one in many respects, despite the fact that it knows “romantic irony” or bizarre, surrealistic perception of the world.