alogia

[Natalia Pylypiuk]

Dorohi kolegy,

The mid-seventeenth Latin dictionary (Leksikon" latynskyi)
compiled by the Ukrainian lexicographer Epiphanii Slavynec'kyi
translates the Latin term
"alogia" as "be(z)slovesye."

This dictionary also renders the Latin
"elegia" as "styx plachlyvyj, pisn', elehyja."

The modern Ukrainian noun "alohija" appears to be related to the
philosophical term alohizm (English alogism) which denotes the
idea that cognition is attained through faith, revelation, intuition.

At the moment I do not recall early-modern Ukrainian poets
using the term "alohyja.". One would have to study the Latin manuals of
poetics and rhetoric and the manuals of philosophy prepared
at the Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium to see how the Latin "alogia"
was used by Ukrainian preceptors in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries.

I suspect that when Ihor Kalynec' uses the modern Ukrainian form
of the term,  "alohija," he is referring to both the absurdity and
speechlessness to which he and his people were driven by Soviet
repression.  After all his Trynadcajat' alohij were written while he was
incarcerated, in 1975. They are part of the collection "Nevol'nycha
muza."

As early as 1965 there appear elements of Skovorodian mysticism
in the poetry of Kalynec'.  Thus, although "alogia" is related
etymologically to "alogian,", which (in English) refers to an ancient sect that
denied the divinity of the Logos, I would argue that Kalynec' (a
devout Greek Catholic) is not an alogian.  On the contrary, I would
suggest that for him the denial of one's divinity is precisely what leads
an individual and, by extension, his culture and nation to the loss of logic,
absurdity and speechlessness.

Just as his post-renaissance predecessors, Kalynec' understands the
difference between elehija and alohija.

Best,
Natalia Pylypiuk

////////
Associate Professor, Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies,
Modern Languages & Cultural Studies: Germanic, Romance, Slavic
200 Arts, University of Alberta,
Edmonton, Alberta  T6G 2E6  Canada
///////

>I guess the correct spelling might be "elegy."
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Edward Dumanis <dumanis at acsu.buffalo.edu>

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