What is a thought in literature? This is a special kind of literary form of the heroic epic, which used to be performed by wanderers: lyrists, bandurists, kobzars in the Left-Bank and Central Ukraine.
What is the structure of the duma?
The Duma in literature is a little larger in volume than historical ballads, but it is closely connected with the heroic epic. In the structure of this type of work, three structural elements can be distinguished: the tune-tear, the main part and the ending. The poetic form of the thought is astrophic, that is, without dividing into verses, phrases that begin with exclamations “oh” and end with “gay gay”.
The Duma as a genre of literary work appears as the highest stage of recitative, which was previously developed in lamentations. Poetic images and motives of doom are also partially borrowed from lamentations. Thoughts most often had characteristic improvisations, that is, singers had stories that they conveyed to the people through thoughts, but never had a memorized text. Kobzari are blind old men who can masterfully play kobz, they went from village to village, sang thoughts to the villagers, and for this they received a gratitude roof for the night and some food. Kobzars, like lyrists and bandurists, were loved and waited to listen to new stories about Cossacks.
Who sang thoughts?
The Duma in literature is that kind of folk art in which there is no absolute accuracy. Singers, namely kobzars, lyrists and bandurists, adopted from their teacher the motives and options for singing and playing melodies. In order to perform this type of creativity, it was necessary to have a special talent - both in music and in word. The singing technique of the performers should also be on par. It is for this reason that these thoughts were preserved only by professional performers.
Thoughts dominate the verbal component, while the melody comes as an addition. The text and rhymes are most often rhetorical, beautifully designed, saturated with epithets, tautologies, cognates. For example, such expressions as: “the land of Christianity”, “clear dawns”, “heavy bondage”, “cursed bushman,” “bread and salt”, “Janissaries of the Turks” were often used. Quite often in thoughts rhetorical questions, anaphora, repetition, treatment, inversion and other speech decorations occurred. The Duma in literature is really the most saturated form of art, which has not yet been eclipsed by anything.
Theme Doom
Thoughts are famous for being epic and solemn. The main topics of thoughts went around the era during which they appeared: the Cossacks. The singers talked about the battles of the Cossacks with enemies, about the exploits of the hetmans and commanders. Most of all, this type of creativity developed during the period of struggle with the Poles, Turks and Tatars. In scientific terminology, such a term as “thought” appeared thanks to M. Maksimovich, who, following P. Lukashevich, P. Kulish and several other writers, published the first thoughts. The most reasonable scientific publication of doom is still the publication of “Ukrainian People’s Dumas” under the direction of Ekaterina Grushevskaya, but for this the writer was repressed and her book was withdrawn from all libraries.