CZESŁAW MIŁOSZ’S «DOLINA ISSY» AS A POETIC STORY OF THE FORMATION OF HUMAN IDENTITY

In the paper – taking into account general understanding of poetry (poetry is something that is beautiful, sublime, unusual) – the textual structures of the novella that perform a poetic function have been analyzed; besides, the factors that determine the formation of the identity of the protagonist have been spotlighted. The poetic expression of the text, which introduces the developing of the plot into the natural and historical background, has been highlighted. From the poetics point of view, various portraits of heroes have been analyzed: external, psychological, and metaphysical; descriptions of the appearance and behavior of animals, birds, reptiles have been provided. What is more, in the aspect of poetic semantics and connotations, descriptions of landscapes, interiors have been analyzed; narrations about various processes of the ordinary and routine life and objects around the protagonist have been noticed. Poeticism is also represented in such textual structures as reasoning, especially concerning the fundamental issues of life and death. Taking into account the author’s strategy of reproducing the factors of identity creation, the protagonist explores his nature (and the human nature in general) through binary oppositions. Parents, environment, ancestors, history, motherland, and the home place, where he was born and where he grew up have influenced the formation of protagonist’s identity. This last telluric identity factor mostly shapes the peculiarity of Tomas’s worldview, as well as his Creator. Being a story about Lithuania at the beginning of the twentieth century, «The Issa Valley» is the story about true Lithuanian beliefs, customs, myths that existed that time; such senses make the text written in prose, poetic in its essence. Characteristics of the protagonist’s identity have been outlined: he is a person endowed with a talent of poetic vision of the world; he has religion feelings by the way, he also «tasted Manichaean poison»; patriotism rooted in nobility and in his small country – Lithuania. This is a being who becomes an organic part of the mental paradigm an animal – a human being – God.