“THE TALE OF BYGONE YEARS” AS A PROTO-SCIENTIFIC CULTURAL WORK OF UKRAINIAN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE

Abstract

The proposed article is a continuation of research in the direction of the actual genesis and evolution of cultural science in the history of Ukraine. The main goal of the article is to reveal the cultural content of “Tales of Bygone Years” – a historical proto-scientific work, which is the oldest among all Ukrainian literary works preserved to this day. This research is a part of the thorough proof of the thesis that Ukrainian cultural studies de facto exists and has been developing since earlier times and is a much older respectable science than is commonly believed today. Taking into account the fact that Ukrainian cultural studies is currently experiencing a phase of ontological crisis, the study of this issue is a rather important and urgent task. The article highlights the general historical context and the main favorable factors for the development of Slavic- Ukrainian science. Information is provided about the existing genres of proto-scientific Ukrainian literature of the times of Kyivan Rus. The main aspects of the history of the creation of “Tales of Bygone Years” have been studied – the time of writing the work, the source and information base, etc. The problematic and thematic contexts associated with various cultural phenomena, which collectively form the cultural content of the annals as a whole, have been identified. A certain number of research methods applied in the work have been established, which are currently part of the main methodological toolkit of Ukrainian cultural studies. Definitions are provided for each of the cognitive methods with corresponding fragments of the text as examples.