Poetry-based performance as a method of Lesia Ukrainka’s heritage actualization

Abstract

The object of study is poetry-based performance as a productive method of poetry actualization, which allows creating a wide range of individual interpretations of the same poem through the personal experience of the performer. A poetry performance is a performance where poetry media (written and/or spoken words) are dominant. A pretext for poetry performances is optional as poetry text can be created during poetry performance ex nihilo. All poetry-based performances have pretexts that are used as starting points for the performances. However, the use of poetry media during the performance itself is not an obligation. The research problem is the comprehension of the common points between poetry performance and poetry-based performance. The purpose of the article is to analyse the actualization of Lesia Ukrainka’s poetry through modern performance. Intertextual and intermedia research methods were used to achieve the goal.

As a result of the analysis, the following conclusions were made. Two contemporary performances by Ukrainian artists, discussed in the study (poetry-based poetry performance No name (2014) by Yaryna Shumska and poetry-based videoperformance Contra Spem Spero! (2020) by Kseniia Kysylychyn), have a common pretext (poem Contra spem spero! by Lesia Ukrainka) but create different fields of meaning. These performances not only underline the notability and importance of the pretext but also emphasize certain lines and images of it as the most relevant to a certain time (and to a certain performer), the most valuable ones, the ones artists (physically) live through (and gain personal experience from). The link between pretext and performance does not vanish even if, at first glance, it may seem blurred. That gives the audience a chance to make unexpected associations and interpretations of both the performance and the pretext, to broaden the borders of the text, and to look at it from a different angle. Poetry-based performance can be held not only on stage but also in a public place, not only in a gallery but also at one’s home. Poetry-based performance aims to create a new artwork, to reconsider literary heritage of previous generation of poets with new media. They do not repeat a pretext, but rather change it in a way adequate to the (new) times.