Character & Image
Lyrical Hero
The lyrical hero is the image of the one whose experiences, thoughts, and feelings are expressed in a lyric work — a kind of 'second self' of the poet that arises in their creativity. The lyrical hero cannot be identified with the real, biographical author, though a close connection exists between them: it is an artistically generalized, aesthetically transformed image of the lyric subject. The concept was introduced into literary studies by Yuri Tynianov (with respect to the work of Alexander Blok). The lyrical hero is endowed with a certain worldview, character, and fate, which emerge from the totality of an author's or a cycle's lyric works; they may change, 'evolve.' One also distinguishes the 'lyric I' and role lyric (where the speaker is an invented persona). Vivid, integral images of the lyrical hero appear in Taras Shevchenko's 'Kobzar,' in Ivan Franko's 'Withered Leaves,' and in the poetry of Lesia Ukrainka and Vasyl Stus.
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Meaning, origins and distinction — side by side.
Distinction
A narrower and a broader concept of the speaker in lyric. The lyrical hero is a relatively INTEGRAL image with its own biography, character and worldview, emerging from a cycle or an entire oeuvre (the poet's "second self"). The lyrical subject is a MORE GENERAL concept embracing ALL forms of the speaker's presence: the lyrical hero proper, the "lyric I," the role-mask hero and non-subjective forms where experience is expressed without a direct "I." Every lyrical hero is a subject, but not every subject is unfolded into a hero.
