Czesław Miłosz’s “АBC’s” in the Context of Ukrainian Authors’ Essay Lexicons: Ideological and Compositional Aspects

Abstract

The article analyzes the ideological and compositional organization of the collection of essays by C. Miłosz АBC’s. It focuses on the important components of this collection: the title, genre, preface, epigraphs, the very principle of alphabetical arrangement of texts united by a reflexive-autobiographical discourse. The conclusion concerns the productivity of the model of organization of texts about one’s own life created by C. Miłosz in the context of the era as its ideological and worldview presentation from the point of view of a witness to history, and not just an aesthete, which was also actively used by Ukrainian writers Yu. Andrukhovych (“Lexicon of Intimate Cities”), V. Neborak (“Lexicon of A. G.”), M. Riabchuk (“Lexicon of the Nationalist and Other Essays”), V. Makhno (“From Vowels and Consonants”). The article states that Polish and Ukrainian authors are united by identical essayistic-autobiographical practices, borderline consciousness, the intention to combine their own works into lexicons according to the alphabetic or similar principle, and the structuring of the author’s consciousness into a nonlinear postmodern narrative. The analysis of the collection has demonstrated the productivity of Miłosz’s model of legitimization of the essayistic alphabet as a full-fledged philosophical-essayistic form of the artist’s self-identification, revealed through intellectual biography and ethical-historical reflections. АBC’s by C. Miłosz in the context of the works of Ukrainian artists has demonstrated its references to traditions and at the same time the originality of the author’s thinking, interesting for creative imitation by younger Ukrainian authors.