Multiple function of antithesis in gundulić's “osman“

Abstract

Antithesis is an outstanding stylistic device in all of Gundulić's poetic works, from his early plays to “Dubravka“. But it is in “Osman“ that the micro-structure of contrast will have a special position, either because it is very common or because it has meaningful function. Directing in this sense his analysis of Gundulić's epic, the author points out that even the fundamental message of the poet is based on the outcome of the conflict between two opposed worlds. This idea is realised on many thermatic and stylistic levels: from the contrasts between good and evil, between the West and the East, between Christianity and Islam, the Poles nad the Turks, Vladislaus and Osman, to the secondary characters (Sunčanica and Sokolića, etc.) to the micro-structures of the varied contrastive subject- matter. The epic contains over 300 conceptual oppositions, and in his analysis of the text the author lists several types of such conceptual concepts (e. g. pride and fall, the wheel of fortune going up and down, the emperor and the slave, light and darkness, etc.) some of which are also known from the native literary heritage. Opposition is the basic element of Gundulić's experience of the world, and it finds explicit expression in the micro-structures of style and the macro-structures of theme and composition. Antithesis is thus the key to the experience of Gundulić's work as complete work of art and it has a multiple function in the epic.