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Item A Word of Welcome from the Editor-in-Chief(2015) Morenets, VolodymyrIntroductory article of Kyiv-Mohyla Humanities Journal 2015. No. 2. by the editor in chief.Item Biblical Studies at the Kyiv Theological Academy (19th — early 20th Centuries): The Results and Prospects of the Research(2015) Golovashchenko, SergiiThis article presents a multiyear study undertaken by the author in a number of his research articles and monographs. For the first time in Ukrainian academic studies, the historical and theoretical reconstruction of biblical studies at the Kyiv Theological Academy in the 19th and early 20th centuries has been accomplished. This phenomenon is demonstrated and reviewed as a holistic system of research, instructional, theological, apologetic, religious and educational activity. Therefore, the history of biblical studies, as a specific academic discipline, has been singled out in the Ukrainian religious studies and theology of today. A large number of previously unexplored publications, documents, archival material, etc. have been introduced into academic use and significantly expanded the body of sources that can be used for research in biblical studies and theology in general. It significantly improves the current level of study of theology and the humanities in Ukraine in the 19th and early 20th centuries. At the same time, it expands the prospects for modern Ukrainian education, both secular and theological.Item Key Dates in the History of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy(2015) Iaremenko, MaksymThe researchers of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries defined its periodization and the important dates in its history. Their ideas are still relevant today as each system of periodization represents interpretations of certain events and phenomena of the Academy. In this article, two key dates of Kyiv-Mohyla history, 1701 and 1817, are redefined. The first date is analysed, accenting the change of the legal status of the Kyiv Collegium and its transformation into the Academy. In the second case, historians’ ideas of defining the nature of the Kyiv-Mohyla curriculum differ, either in the interpretation of 1817 as the end of the history of the old Academy or as only one of the stages of its past. Perhaps in establishing important chronological boundaries, both groups of scholars are mistaken in their interpretations of the larger context of the question.Item Lyric Poetry in the Mohylanian Poetics(2015) Siedina, GiovannaThis article analyses the treatment of lyric poetry in the Mohylanian poetics and takes into account the wider framework of the conception of poetry fostered at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. The author reconstructs the sources that Mohylanian authors used and then studies their selective use; she also investigates the numerous poetic quotations from Horace and M. K. Sarbiewski that Mohylanian authors quoted as examples illustrating the poetic rules, precepts and principles they wished to impart to their pupils. This analysis confirms that lyric poetry was mainly conceived by Mohylanian authors as a poetic means to either praise someone (genus demonstrativum or exornativum) or to convey some moral teaching (genus deliberativum), and was thus conceived as a means for the moral edification both of those who practiced it and also those who took pleasure in reading and listening to it.Item Sylvester Kosov’s Exegesis (1635): A Manifesto of the Kyiv-Mohyla Counter-Reformation(2015) Isichenko, IhorBishop Sylvester Kosov’s polemical treatise The Exegesis (1635) is regarded as evidence of new trends in Kyiv theology, reflecting the entry of Orthodox thinkers of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Rzeczpospolita) into the spiritual sphere of European Reform, traditionally defined as the Counter-Reformation. The treatise’s author, being the closest associate of Metropolitan Petro Mohyla, denies the Byzantine theologians’ accusations of pliancy to Protestant influences. Demonstrating doctrinal differences with Calvinism, Lutheranism, and Unitarianism, Sylvester Kosov determines his own faith identity and its natural connection to the apostolic tradition and the teachings of the Church Fathers. In doing so, he uses expressive Baroque imagery.Item The Prologue to the Narcissus of Hryhorii Skovoroda as a Philosophical Testament(2015) Perri, GiuseppeThe article points out the composition and publication of the dialogue Narcissus and its Prologue, why the figure of Narcissus is for Skovoroda so unusually positive and why it is connected to the theme of “know thyself.” The article also draws an unprecedented parallelism between the “sacred narcissism” of Skovoroda and the “heroic frenzies” of Giordano Bruno. The theoretical meaning of the Narcissus’ figure in Skovoroda’s philosophy is the link between epistemological idealism, self-love (which is a strong ethical and personal commitment, a love of own character and fate) and deification. From the ontological point of view, it is suggested that Skovoroda’s ontology is a Christian Plutarchism: a transformation (by Platonizing and Christianizing it) of the Stoic individual hegemonic into an ability to grasp the invisible divine, in a perspective close to St. Augustine. Finally, we find, in Skovoroda’s philosophical testament, an original synthesis of Latin culture and humanism with modernism and Hesychasm’s spirituality.Item Author and Authorship in Dymytriy Tuptalo’s Lives of the Saints(2015) Syroyid, DariyaThe Lives of the Saints compendium by Dymytriy Tuptalo belongs to a special type of rewritten literature representing a collection of already existing and retold texts. The paper discusses how numerous authors, often distanced in time, can coexist within one text. It focuses on the combination of various (medieval and early modern) approaches in the gathering of a hagiographical collection, as well on Tuptalo’s individual traits as a hagiographer-compiler, his original source processing, and his collaboration with predecessors. The paper attempts to reveal the characteristic features of the compendium that provide a better understanding of the concept of the author and authorship in the process of metaphraseis.Item The Return of Burlesque: Comic Forms in Contemporary Ukrainian Literature, 1985–2010(2015) Semkiv, RostyslavBurlesque as a literary device can serve for satirical purpose, but its main function is revealed in the provocation of carnivalesque ambivalence. Unlike satire, where an author remains serious, carnival laughter captures everyone, including its provocateur. This is exuberant laughter that affirms the joyful fact of very human existence. The use of burlesque in Ukrainian literature does not refer to a certain epoch, but forms a continuous and powerful tradition. In the middle of the 1980s, with the liberalization of Ukrainian society, literature steadily turned away from a purely utilitarian role, and burlesque returned, as a device of free and unrepressed laughter. The "Bu- Ba-Bu" literary group, Yuri Vynnychuk, Les Poderviansky, Mukhailo Brynykh most actively elaborate burlesque in their writings, either in a carnival context, or as a device of satire. Thus, the burlesque tradition is quite visible and influential in contemporary Ukrainian literature.Item Radio Vienna: Broadcasts by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, 1938–1939(2015) Shkandrij, MyroslavSurviving transcripts of radio broadcasts made by the OUN in 1938 and 1939 defend the Ukrainian right to an independent state and support the formation of Carpatho-Ukraine as the first step towards achieving this goal. At the same time they praise Germany for the new situation created in the wake of the Munich Agreement. The broadcasts were allowed by Germany as part of its strategy to destabilize Czechoslovakia and Poland. The strong anti-Jewish line taken by the OUN in the first months of broadcasting was likely the required payment for being allowed to broadcast. The broadcasts stopped criticizing the Soviet Union when the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed.Item Memoralization of Lenin: Legislation and Attitudes (On the Materials of Kyiv, Vinnytsia and Cherkasy Regions)(2015) Gaidai, OleksandraDespite more than 20 years of independence, Ukraine’s former political system has not vanished, as it had created and left behind immense material and cultural resources. The new, often weaker system is not able to obliterate or eliminate signs of the past completely. Thus, cleansing or preserving a landscape feature is an act of historical politics and represents national needs and expectations. In this context, the main question is how do Ukrainian authorities incorporate the Soviet heritage, in our case political monuments, into the cultural and public space of modern Ukraine? The present research scrutinizes the politics of memory towards the Soviet past in contemporary Ukraine. It looks at policies towards Soviet heritage in political monumental art at the governmental and local levels in central Ukraine. The article analyses official documents on Soviet heritage in Ukraine, the conditions of its enactment and the specifics of implementation. Secondly, the research investigates the activities of local authorities in protecting or demounting Soviet monuments. Finally, the analysis examines the attitudes of the population, which include both actions and views. The “ground” level analysis helps us to avoid misleading generalizations in the field of historical politics and discloses the way that politics of memory is perceived and shared among the population.Item Faces of Displacement: The Writings of Volodymyr Vynnychenko by Mykola Soroka: [review](2015) Chapailo, Yana