“Praise to hetman Konstantin Ostrozhsky”: ideological, artistic and genre features

The article deals with “Praise to Hetman Konstantin Ostrozhsky” – a work of Belarusian literature of the first half of the 16th century, which was not previously the subject of a comprehensive study in Belarusian science. Close attention is paid to the literary history of this work and its detailed textual analysis is provided in the paper. In particular, individual fragments of the work having parallels with a number of chronicle stories of Novgorod origin were discovered, and a new dating of creation time of the work was proposed. The article describes figurative system, compositional features, ideological content and means of artistic expressiveness of “Praise”. The genre of the work has also been revised: a number of identified specific features of the work allow us to assert that in its genre it is close to a military tale. It is concluded that “Praise” is one of the first works of medieval Belarusian literature, which reflects the patriotic views of an individual in their national rather than narrow local or ethno­confessional meaning. In addition, the article defends the idea that an informal “chivalric” code of honor, formed against the backdrop of the socio­political context relevant for that time, found its textual embodiment in “Praise”.