Vytauto Mačernio sonetas: žanrinė tematika ir struktūrinė charakteristika (sąsajos su Petrarca ir W. Shakespeare'u)

ENSonnets makes more than one third of the works of Mačernis. It is a significant contribution to Lithuanian literature because of their artistic value and novelty of this genre in Lithuania before World War II. However, there is acknowledged in the article that on the whole sonnet wasn't a new genre - its sources we find in the Middle Ages. The main figures in the history of sonnet are Petrarch and W. Shakespeare. So we have tried to relate their sonnets with these of Mačernis who translated sonnets of Petrarch and studied Shakespeare. Though Mačernis and Petrarch are too far away from each other in respect of their epoch, cultural ground and personal experience, there are some common points in their conception of love and woman, in the variations of antique images. Investigating the structure of the sonnets of Mačernis, it was found that the Italian canon affected them more deeply than did the English, or Shakespearean one. On the other hand, the French canon is more freqent than Italian in the cycle of Mačernis. Petrarch made a strong influence on Shakespeare. So our next step was to seek for similarities or differences in the content and form of the sonnets of Mačernis and Shakespeare. In this case common things are considered: the cyclic composition and symmetrical structure of their sonnets, philosophical concentration on the recurrence of time and humanistic problems. The system of rhymes in the cycle of Mačernis is rather different from Shakespearean. However, the English couplet in some of Mačernis' sonnets may be a detail of the Shakespearean canon. To sum up, it should be noted that the sonnets of Mačernis are traditional because of humanistic themes and standard structures, which took root in the ground of the Lithuanian language. Their originality is revealed in the conception of love and a more flexible form.