Peculiarities of Ukrainian anti-colonial dramaturgy of the XVIII - first half of the XIX century

The article deal the general patterns and main trends in the formation and development of dramatic genres as a self-sufficient genre in Ukrainian literature of the XVIII – first half of the XIX century, aimed at highlighting anti-imperial ideas in close connection with the requirements of general literary genre and national traditions. It was found that the anti-colonial national literature found its expression in such genres as historical drama, drama-morality, vaudeville, social-household drama and comedy. «Vladimir» by Feofan Prokopovich, «God’s Mercy...» by an unknown author, «Resurrection of the Dead» by Georgy Konysky, «Muscovite Magician» by Ivan Kotlyarevsky and «The Simpleton» by Vasyl Gogol, which were the embodiment of baroque and classicist styles with a combination of elements of ancient Greek comedies and tragedies, European medieval mysteries, Ukrainian interludes, miracles, morals and dramas of the Easter cycle, contributed to bringing to the stage the realities of the time and gave them a dynamic anti-colonial embodiment.The harmonious combination of high and low styles by the authors became an innovation of these dramatic works. It was found that the features of Baroque, Classicism, Enlightenment realism, sentimentalism and romanticism, which appeared in the social-household drama “Natalka-Poltavka” by I. Kotlyarevsky, social-household comedies “Yabeda” by V. Kapnist, «Noble elections», «A visitor from the capital, or the commotion in the county town», «Shelmenko – volost clerk», «Clairvoyant», «Shelmenko – batman « by G. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko and “Inspector” M. Gogol, were aimed at covering colonial problems in Ukraine after the abolition of the Hetmanate. A feature of these genres was the synthesis of Ukrainian Christmas dramas and social and domestic interludes with European bourgeois drama, which provided an opportunity to raise national drama to the European level. It is investigated that dramatic works of anti-colonial orientation of the XVIII – first half of the XIX century approved deviations from the established traditions of a particular literary genre. Instead, they presented a synthesis of baroque-classicist-educational-romantic aesthetic values that interacted with the folklore traditions of our people.