Provocative strategies in Yanka Kupala’s poetry

Abstract

The article explores the artistic phenomenon of provocativeness in the poetry of Yanka Kupala as a strategy of psychological influence on the reader. The poet used provocative strategies as catalysts of positive processes in Man and society. Provocation served the purpose of changing persistent social, cultural and personality-related stereotypes of the readers and transforming old conventional norms with a view to shaping an active, spiritually mature and nationally conscious personality and, by this, contributing to the renewal of Man and society. Selected fragments of Kupala’s poetry are quoted to illustrate the author’s most frequently used provocative “devices”, such as the reversal of readers’ ordinary expectations, introduction of contrast, creation of paradoxical situations, refusal and combining disjoint concepts.