About the book: 1977 / The monograph examines, in a number of essays connected by a cross-cutting idea, the basic creative principles of early Byzantine literature (IV–VII centuries). The author focuses on the typological features of the new, growing in contradictory contact with the heritage of antiquity. The specific attitude towards the word inherent in early Byzantine poets and prose writers is placed in the context of social and cultural history; it is analyzed as an expression of a certain view of the world and the place of man in the world. A special chapter is devoted to the role of early Byzantine literature in the formation of rhyme