The Journal of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. Series “Philology”

A Teacher with a Capital Letter

Valentyna Ponomarenko — 2025-07-01

In memory of Teacher, Friend and Colleague Professor Igor Muromtsev

In Memory of Professor I. V. Muromtsev

Liubov Savchenko — 2025-07-01

In memory of Teacher, Friend and Colleague Professor Igor Muromtsev

Innovative artifacts of the unofficial anthroponymicon of Ukrainian politics in the contemporary metamodern discourse

Kateryna Diukar — 2025-07-01

The article is devoted to the study of current trends in unofficial naming, especially neogenic derivative processes. The author aims to explore innovative artifacts of the unofficial anthroponymicon of Ukrainian politics from the perspective of contemporary metamodern discourse. The focus of attention is on nicknames, in particular, of the occasional creation, of representatives of the top echelon of Ukrainian politics, recorded in the Internet space over the past fifteen years. The author traces the regularities of the implementation of traditional anthroponymic formulas at the present stage, as well as the use of non-usual tools for creating nicknames. It is found that the occasional patterns, which are actively involved in the digital age in the creation of appellative and onomastic innovations, are becoming more complex, acquiring hybrid features. The author points out the reorientation of nomination processes from the object of nomination to the nominator and his pragmatic desire to realize his own linguistic creativity. It is noted that the monopolarity of nominations, in particular in conservative systems such as the anthroponymicon, has been gradually shifting towards polyvectoriality over the past thirty years. Attention is paid to anthroponyms-enantiosemantics, in which the polarized meaning did not develop over time on the basis of the characteristics of the secondary object of nomination, in relation to the same object of nomination. It is noted that the attested linguistic artifacts clearly do not fit into the framework of postmodern discourse. The hypothesis is put forward that the worldview paradigm of the representatives of the Ukrainian-speaking community acquires metamodern features, which leads to the creation of contrasting and oscillating onymes. It is pointed out that the pendulum principle becomes dominant in the metamodern discourse in general and its linguistic markers, when polar phenomena are not an element of binarity, but an oscillatory movement between different aspects of life.

Religious images as markers of value transformations of modern Ukrainians (based on the material of the collective collection of poems “The mark of home”)

Inna Litvinova — 2025-07-01

The actual direction in modern domestic linguistics is the study of texts of various genres regarding their ability to capture and convey the process of formatting the worldview of a nation’s representatives. Such studios require a comprehensive approach involving historical, cultural, sociological, psychological knowledge, etc. This necessitates the development of an appropriate research methodology, which today is linguosophy.

The aim of our work is to investigate the poetic texts of the collective collection «The mark of home» (2019) in terms of the semantic implementation of religious images, which are constants of Ukrainian language thinking. Linguosophical analysis of the texts by male soldiers and female volunteers in a certain aspect allows us to draw conclusions about the emotional state and moral values of the patriotic part of Ukrainian society during the Russian-Ukrainian war. We observe both traditional implementations of religious images and individually author, through which poets reveal the motives for searching the meaning of life, betrayal, revenge, missianism, etc. The most represented images belong to Christian religion, realized through a range of nominations (God, Lord, Almighty, Messiah, Christ). A characteristic feature of the analysed poetry is the language formation of the analysed images at the intersection of religious and military discourses, which at the textual level occurs through the active involvement of the nominations of military realities. The variety of interpretations of religious images and motives regarding the analysed texts allows us to draw conclusions about the worldview and perception of Ukrainians in a challenging historical period and demonstrate the inexhaustible capacity of the language to convey profound meanings.

Ukrainian patronymic or language and legal illiteracy

Anatoliy Nelyuba — 2025-07-01

The modern life of the Ukrainian community is characterized by its transience and changeability. Some of the social innovations often indicate the incompetence of their creators and implementers, which in turn leads to negative consequences in the most diverse spheres of life; such troubles become especially noticeable in case of interference in the foundations, in age-old traditions. A visual sample-confirmation of the specified state is the state standard for the design of organizational and administrative documents, which entered into force in September 2021. The standard is noted for its orthographic and stylistic illiteracy, lack of motivation, illogicality and vagueness of some of its norms. Contrary to centuries-old traditions, this standard prohibits Ukrainians from using the patronymic name in the named documents. In this way, they were illegally deprived of the right to a name (has three components: surname, first name, patronymic) and its use in all spheres of life, provided for by the Constitution of Ukraine and other legislative acts. In addition, this standard forces Ukrainians to violate the norms of Ukrainian spelling: instead of the normative spelling of the surname with a capital letter, it obliges to write the entire word in capital letters.In fact, in the specified way, the authors of the standard laid down distorted norms of the state language in official documents, violated legislative norms, thereby setting restrictions and obstacles in the use of the state language by citizens. In the end, the innovations of this standard revealed a number of problems of the existence of the Ukrainian community, the most important of which are: the appropriateness of the level of competence and responsibility of officials, state institutions and bodies; citizen's rights, their observance and protection; preserving the identity of the Ukrainian community and its equality among other national communities. Of course, under such conditions, the specified and other features of the standard undoubtedly testify to the illegality of the mentioned provisions and the inadmissibility of its further application.

Mike Johansen’s Critical Discourse

Tetiana Petrova — 2025-07-01

The article characterizes the features of M. Johansen critical discourse on the material of the texts of dictionary reviews. It is determined that the individual thinking style of the scientist, his creative approaches to solving certain problems are expressed during the critical evaluation of the works of other scientists. The relevance of the research is motivated by the need to analyze M. Johansen's reviews of dictionaries, which are a valuable component of his critical discourse, to understand and characterize the phenomenon of his linguistic personality as a reviewer.

The purpose of this study is to characterize the features of dictionary criticism and the features of M. Johansen critical discourse based on the material of dictionary reviews.

Dictionary review is a tool for improving the quality of national dictionary production and at the same time an integral genre that combines features of scientific communication, language criticism, and source studies, which involve examination and evaluation of dictionaries. The review genre is primarily presented in critical discourse.

It is established that the analyzed reviews of dictionaries reveal the author's personality of the critic M. Johansen of the observant type (the term by Y. Shevelev), as well as represent him as a reviewer with a deep and wide erudition and a high level of critical thinking.

It is determined that the individuality of M. Johansen style of criticism is extremely expressive, partly with emotional and expressive connotations, which are connected with the expression of the reviewer's personal attitude to the analyzed material.

It is found that M. Johansen critical discourse is a kind of intellectual laboratory, where he gives a part of himself, establishes the values of dictionaries, and carries out their comparative analysis.

The original evaluative constructions which are abundant in the reviews, sometimes presented with phraseological units that highlight the essence of the individual meanings of the linguistic personality of the critic, are traced.

The main approach of M. Johansen to evaluating dictionaries is to postulate the concept of "loyalty" to the Ukrainian language and to strive to develop it on the basis of the modern developments and best achievements of national lexicography.

Folklore hydronyms as an object of lexicography: some remarks and instructions regarding the structural and functional parameters of the dictionary description

Ruslan Serdeha — 2025-07-01

Folklore is an important component of national culture, and its verbal means significantly contributed to the formation of the literary variety of the Ukrainian language at certain stages of development. The study of the linguistic richness of oral folk literature reveals the diversity of the cultural heritage of our people and contributes to the strengthening of national consciousness. The language of folklore has long been in need of special purposeful lexicographic study. A significant place in the texts of oral folklore belongs to proper names, in particular hydronyms, which, in addition to a purely informative function, sometimes perform an artistic and figurative function in folklore texts. Hydronyms have long been in the field of linguists' attention. The interest in their study is primarily because they are one of the oldest types of proper names. Today, Ukrainian scientists have compiled dictionaries that normalise the spelling of proper names of water bodies and lexicographical works that clarify the etymology of these names. However, the language of folklore in general and the hydronums used in it, in particular, have not yet been the subject of more or less systematic lexicographic description. The aim of the article is to present samples of lexicographic parameterisation of the names of water bodies functioning in the language of Ukrainian folklore. The material for the dictionary description was a variety of folklore material extracted from fairy tales, legends, and ballads on family and domestic themes, dumas, historical songs, and love songs. We have found that the most commonly used hydronyms in the texts of Ukrainian folklore are those used to name watercourses (rivers). There are also names of lakes, seas, sometimes ponds, and water crossings. Such names can directly correlate with reality or sometimes be a product of folk imagination. We have found out that invented names mostly function as part of pelagonyms. In making a lexicographic description of folklore hydronyms, we rely primarily on the traditional model of a dictionary entry. However, the area of explanation should reflect the specifics of these proper names - contain geospatial indicators, an indication of the type of water body, reflect the artistic originality of the hydronym used in folklore, and convey those additional shades (mythological, symbolic) that it acquires in the situation of specific word usage in a particular folklore text.

Associative-verbal field of the concept as a marker of national linguistic consciousness

Liudmyla Pedchenko — 2025-07-01

The article is devoted to the problem of the universal and national-specific in the linguistic consciousness of representatives of different ethnic groups. The purpose of the study is to identify common features and national specificity of the linguistic consciousness of Ukrainians, Russians and Bulgarians on the basis of a comparative analysis of the semantic structure of the associative-verbal field "people", which objectifies an important linguocultural concept for the Ukrainian, Russian and Bulgarian worldviews.

The relevance of the work is due to the significance of the comparative study of associative-verbal fields in the context of the actualization of the intercultural aspect of the study of concepts, national linguistic consciousness and linguoculture in general, which is characteristic of modern anthropocentric linguistics.

The empirical basis of the work was the data of the “Slavic Associative Dictionary”, created based on the results of free associative experiments conducted with speakers of four Slavic languages (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Bulgarian) in the late 1990s.

As a result of the study, it was found that associative-verbal fields reveal many common features in the interpretation of the concept of “people” by the linguistic consciousness of Ukrainians, Russians and Bulgarians. Thus, the core of the concept is formed by the cognitive features of “people, crowd”, “number”, national and state-political characteristics, although the place of these features in the nuclear zone of the concept within the national linguistic cultures is different (in Ukrainian the national aspect dominates, in Russian and Bulgarian – the features of “crowd”, “people”). To varying degrees, the ideas of power and greatness, unity, suffering and humiliation are actualized in the structure of the concept. The evaluative zone of the concept in all three languages is ambivalent. However, a comparative analysis of associative fields has also revealed a significant number of national-specific reactions to the stimulus "people". Thus, the cultural and historical features, national-mental differences of the three Slavic peoples determine the specificity of their linguistic consciousness, which is reflected in the structure and specific content of the corresponding associative-verbal fields at the level of both the nuclear zone of the concept and its periphery.

Subjective modality as an anthropocentric attribute of a text and a linguistic personality

Olga Radchuk — 2025-07-01

Subjective modality is one of the leading textual categories, as singled out by contemporary researchers of the text categorial apparatus since it penetrates the whole text space and is the main constituent of the author’s image. The article aims to explore the category of subjective modality as one of the fundamental text categories that determines the specifics of all other categories in a fictional text. Various points of view as to the nature of the phenomenon of modality and the criteria for singling out its types are summarized. The two main types of modality – objective and subjective – are described in detail, though it is emphasized that the boundary between them is mostly conventional. The means of expressing modality are analyzed. The article focuses on subjective modality as a manifestation of the author’s world mapping in a fiction text and underlines that only subjective modality becomes a textual category. This type of modality gains even more importance within a framework of the anthropocentric paradigm, which is the leading one in modern philological research. The article also highlights the correlation between the category of subjective modality and the categories of evaluation and intentionality. The author’s attitude and intentions become clearer through it, making subjective modality the most essential text attribute. At the same time, its axiological orientation reflects fiction texts' pragmatics through using individual stylistic devices and other linguistic and literary expressive means. With the development of philological science and the separation of text linguistics into an independent scientific discipline, modality has also begun to be considered a category of text in recent decades. The study of subjective-modal factors in the text has enabled scientists to conclude that modality is a category, that it is inherent in the text, and that subjective modality is a universal category of the literary text.

Semantic Unities for the Concept of “War in Ukraine” (based on English, German and Ukrainian Languages)

Iryna Sokolova — 2025-07-01

The war in Ukraine, just like any other historical event, is an impetus for the creation of certain semantic unities to denote new phenomena. The wide media representation of events in Ukraine in the mass media both at home and abroad requires a particularly careful attitude to the terminology of war to prevent incorrect interpretations of events and phenomena. That is why it is important not only to specify the Ukrainian-language terminology for the phenomena of war, but also to compare it with the available terms in other languages.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the trends in the formation and use of semantic unities to denote the concept of «war in Ukraine» based on scientific and popular science articles published in Ukrainian, English, and German-language sources in 2022–2024.

Tracking and analyzing the processes of formation and use of semantic unities to denote the concept of «war in Ukraine» is relevant from the point of view of linguistic and semantic research, as these processes provide the scientific basis for «term creation work» aimed at creating new Ukrainian terms for foreign language terms.

While journalism should be based on the principles of objectivity and neutrality, we believe that international journalists should not and should not remain neutral in their assessment of current events in Ukraine. In our opinion, the most politically correct from the point of view of legal assessment of the situation in Ukraine are semantic unities with a connotative component of negative assessment that are widely used in English-language media.

Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine has given rise to the creation and use of certain semantic unities that contain negative evaluative connotations, are used in certain contexts and reflect the sharply negative attitude of the world community to the aggressive actions of the invading country.

Particularities of employing graphic means of influence in the medical advertising discourse

Olena Tsupikova — 2025-07-01

This article analyzes the specific use of graphic means of influence within medical advertising discourse. The analysis of factual material confirms that the effectiveness of an advertising message, as a complex multicomponent construct, is determined by the interaction between verbal and non-verbal elements. The utilization of non-verbal semiotic resources is driven by their ability to immediately appeal to the recipient’s inner world, providing a robust foundation for the effective realization of the producer’s intentions. The scope of visual (graphic) components employed in crafting advertising messages is vast and unrestricted.

The article substantiates the use of graphic organizational tools, including font variations (capitalisation, fonts of different sizes and types, colour-coded letters, words, and parts of words), text localization techniques, paraphrase markers, and punctuation variations. These tools are shown to effectively capture the consumer’s attention, emphasize key text fragments, ensure ease of readability, facilitate high-quality information processing, and enhance memorability.

The article demonstrates the effectiveness of font variation in highlighting key information, emphasizing significant components of the text, and accentuating specific parts or segments of words. It establishes that the use of fonts of varying sizes, such as descending gradation or alternating font sizes, creates a distinct rhythm. Different font types contribute to a positive tone, enhancing the visual appeal of the advertising text and creating a bright, attractive image. The high informational and pragmatic potential of font color is also emphasized. Bright colors enhance the message’s visibility and attractiveness, facilitate visual comprehension, and unify the text’s elements into a harmonious whole through color combinations.

The highlighted media contribute to making the advertising message original, unique, and exclusive.

“The Moon and Sixpence” by S. Maugham as a “Hidden” Prototext of J. Fowles’s Short Story “The Ebony Tower”

Natalia Bilyk — 2025-07-01

Maugham's "The Moon and Sixpence" is first considered as a prototext of Fowles's "The Ebony Tower". It's presence is not emphasised by quotations, proper names or other types of markers aimed at its actualisation in the process of reading, but by less obvious markers (conventions of а genre, motifs etc.) that are not so easy to read; this allows us to speak of a "hidden" prototext. The goal of the research is to reveal Maugham's novel as a prototext for "The Ebony Tower" and to demonstrate its functioning in this role.

The article presents arguments for the presence of "The Moon and Sixpence" as a prototext for "The Ebony Tower", demonstrates the forms of this presence and its functioning. It has been shown that the character of Henry Breasley is typologicaly similar to the protagonists of the Künstlerroman characteristic of the first half of the 20-th century. Fowles's purposeful attention to Maugham's novel is evidenced by the similarities to it found at different poetic levels of "The Ebony Tower", but first of all by Fowles's emphasis on the vitality power in Breasley, which forms the essence of Maugham's conception of an artist and art. The final short story of the collection, "Enigma", contains allusions to the turning point of Maugham's novel (disappearance); it is included in the analysis because the works in Fowles's collection are interconnected.

The research provides arguments for the assertion that Fowles purposefully involved Maugham's novel in the creation of "The Ebony Tower", especially in modelling the character of Henry Breasley. There is every reason to assume that the decisive factor in the selection of this prototext might be the powerful vitality embodied by Maugham in Strickland and interpreted as the source of his art; the same position Breasley takes in the debate with David Williams. The absence of explicit references to "The Moon and Sixpence" in Fowles's short story leads to the conclusion that their avoidance was part of the writer's strategy of working with the prototext.

Post-traumatic narrative and strategies of overcoming trauma in the novel “The Notebook of Katerina Suvorova” by Lіnor Goralik

Daniil Vlasov — 2025-07-01

The article examines the novel The Notebook of Katerina Suvorova by Linor Goralik through the prism of narrative strategies of representing trauma. Particular attention is paid to the artistic representation of the traumatic consequences of punitive psychiatry, which are considered in a broad socio-cultural and historical context. The work uses an interdisciplinary approach that combines the concepts of trauma studies and narrative theory, in particular the concepts of “acting out” and “working through” (D. LaCapra), as well as the concept of an unreliable narrative instance.

The analysis of the text shows that the narrative structure of the novel is based on fragmentation, repetitive motivational elements, and pseudo-documentary inserts that emphasize the traumatic experience of the protagonist. The fictional city of Tukhachevsk, where the story takes place, appears as an inversion of the St. Petersburg myth, which creates an additional level of interpretation of the space of repression and alienation. Particular emphasis is placed on the escapist mechanisms used by the protagonist to compensate for the loss of her unborn child: the imaginary world, saturated with Christian symbolism, is gradually destroyed by external circumstances, which accompanies the process of working through trauma. The protagonist's imaginary world appears not just as a means of protection from reality, but as a complex mechanism of transformation of traumatic experience, which allows us to trace the fine line between the experience of loss and the possibility of comprehending it.

The article also discusses the problem of an unreliable narrator and the double coding of the text: the external view evaluates Katerina Suvorova as a madwoman, while her internal narrative testifies to the process of integrating traumatic experience. Thus, the author of the article suggests reading Goralik's novel not only as a text about repression and its consequences, but also as a multilevel artistic reflection on the mechanisms of memory, spiritual resistance, and reconstruction of the traumatic past.

Mysticism as a Philosophical Foundation of Maurice Maeterlinck’s Symbolist Theater

Kateryna Dubinina — 2025-07-01

The relevance of this topic is determined by the scientific novelty of the research approach to studying the dramaturgy of M. Maeterlinck, his worldview ideas based on mysticism, as well as the need to trace the influence of the playwright's symbolism on contemporary culture, contemporary theater, and literature.

This article attempts to analyze and trace how the concepts of mysticism became the basis for the creation of Maeterlinck’s unique theatrical world, what elements of mysticism are present in his plays and essays, and how they shape the atmosphere and themes of his works. Thus, the article determines that the playwright's worldview was formed under the influence of his fascination with the "philosophy of life" of A. Schopenhauer and F. Nietzsche, as well as his religiosity and freedom of artistic thought. The interconnection between mysticism and symbolism is traced, the essence of mysticism as a trend, its concepts and ideas are revealed in order to compare them with the postulates and worldview ideas of M. Maeterlinck, which are highlighted in his plays and philosophical essays. Therefore, the scientific research proves that in the context of European literary mysticism, Maeterlinck's symbolism should be understood through the prism of universal truths and the search for the meaning of existence, which are in some opposition to traditional dogmatic Christian ideas, precisely because of their mystical and gnostic character. It is revealed that Maeterlinck's mysticism manifests itself through the symbols of silence, statics, stillness, darkness as something that not only can cause anxiety and fear of the Unknown but is also able to stop, evoke a desire to be silent, to hear and immerse oneself in the knowledge of this Unknown.

The plot of the Princess Olga’s baptism in the Ukrainian baroque prose

Ihor Isichenko — 2025-07-01

The problem of the literary reception of the plot about the baptism of Princess Olga is of topical importance with regard to the experience of solving the dilemma of choosing the civilizational strategy of Rus'-Ukraine, reflected in this episode. The early modern period in the history of Ukraine is characterized by a dramatic confrontation between two vectors of development: integration into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth while preserving its own identity or union with the Moscow Tzardom on the basis of confessional identity.

The article aims to show how the biased interpretation of Princess Olga's choice between Rome and Constantinople became an essential tool for Ukraine's exit from the European civilizational space into the web of the “Russian world”.

The author operates using the method of deconstruction of literary stereotypes and historical mythologies.

The chronicle interpretation of Princess Olga's adoption of Christianity, presented in “The Tale of Bygone Years” under the year 6463 (955), became one of the factors consolidating the Kyiv Metropolis in the sphere of influence of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, inspired by the church schism of 1054. In the course of the polemics over the jurisdictional affiliation of the Kyiv Metropolis, which unfolded after the proclamation of the Union of Brest in 1596, Princess Olga's acceptance of baptism in Constantinople from the hands of the patriarch with the participation of the emperor is used as an argument in favor of the Ukrainian Church's original affiliation to the sphere of influence of the Hellenistic East. Meanwhile, historical sources refute the very possibility of the princess's stay in Constantinople in 955. Instead, the curious plot of ”The Tale of Bygone Years” about Olga's baptism is very appealing to the playful conceptualism of Baroque discourse and fits quite naturally into it. Although it was in the 17th century that a critical analysis of hagiographic sources began, carried out primarily by the Bollandist congregation, Ukrainian authors, paying tribute to the comparative analysis of ”The Tale of Bygone Years” and other historical monuments, sought to preserve the anti-Western basis of the plot of the baptism of Princess Olga. Dimitriy Tuptalo reinforces the Byzantine accents, looking for parallels between the Ruthenian princess and the Roman empress in the choice of the Christian name “Helena”, with whose name a number of far-reaching initiatives from the era of establishing Christianity as a legal religion are associated.

The conclusion from the observations is the fatal role of the Baroque mythologizing of the episode of Princess Olga's baptism in the self-identification of Ukrainian Christians and their determination of Rus’-Ukraine’s place in the civilizational space of Europe.

Between a Word and Voice: the Auditory Space of “Tale of the Sanatorium Zone” (“Povisit pro Sanatoriinu Zonu”) by Mykola Khvylovyi

Yuliia Karpets — 2025-07-01

In the second half of the 20th century, writing was studied as a modernist fluid and perpetual practice on the marches between philosophy, psychoanalysis, and literature studies. French philosophers Roland Barthes and Yulia Kristeva paid attention to the material characteristics of writing. This article defines some theoretical aspects of such an interdisciplinary analysis of writing and its potential in Ukrainian modernist literature. Mykola Khvylovyi’s writing has special tactile, visual, and auditory features, which can be revealed if we involve some theoretical and methodological formations on the border of philosophy and literature studies. It will be possible to nuance the strategies of creating characters as «bezhruntovni romanyky».

The aim is to analyze the auditory space of Povisit pro sanatoriinu zonu by Mykola Hvylovyi and its effects on the strategies of creating characters as the «bezhruntovni romanyky».

The theoretical and methodological foundation is Mladen Dolar’s theory of voice, based on Lacanian and Freudian types of psychoanalysis. The article also involves the theory of tragedy by Jacques Lacan and the theory of writing and its materiality by the French philosophers Julia Kristeva, and Roland Barthes.

The auditory space of Povisit pro sanatoriinu zonu was examined through the psychoanalytic theory of voice. The two extremes are highlighted, specifically, the mute desire for death and the clamor of life. The main character anarkh finds himself surrendered to the mute drive of death on the other side of the tragedy, thus he remains without a ground in the conventional flow of life and its materiality. The specific nature of the voice as a psycho-physical phenomenon complements the conceptual field of «groundlessness» as a fundamental existential principle of subject in Mykola Hvylovyi’s modernist writing.

The theoretical foundations for analyzing the category of writing and its material aspects in Ukrainian modernism were outlined. The auditory aspect of the materiality of Mykola Khvylovyi's writing was explicated.

The Type of Protagonist in Post-“Ulysses” Modernism (Based on the Novels by R. Musil and W. Gombrowicz)

Andrii Krasniashchykh — 2025-07-01

Recently, foreign literary criticism has produced scholarly works that attempt to rethink the usual ideas about modernism. At the same time, the systematic understanding of modernism lacks periodisation: the distinction between its “classical” stage, represented by the works of the “founding fathers” of modernist prose, J. Joyce, F. Kafka and M. Proust, and the next stage, the 1930s, when the influence of these writers on literature was enormous, and the fiction, along with imitating them, tried to escape their influence.

The purpose of the article is to describe and characterise the type of protagonist in modernist novels of the 1930s in comparison with the main characters of J. Joyce’s “Ulysses”, which will make it possible to separate this stage of modernism from the “classical” one and will contribute to a deeper understanding of the general issues and worldview of modernist works of the 1930s.

The methodological basis is M. Kundera’s concept of the evolution of the genre of the modern novel in three “times”, where the third, the modernist one, is represented by the novelists of the 1930s, in particular, W. Gombrowicz and R. Musil.

The central characters of the novels “The Man Without Qualities” by R. Musil, Ulrich, and “Ferdydurke” by W. Gombrowicz, Józio, as well as Leopold Bloom, the main character of J. Joyce’s “Ulysses”, are “everymen”, “people in general” by character and their position in society and the world. They are simultaneously “and” and “and” and “under-” and “under-” However, the fact that they are intellectuals, loners, and in their plot role – sons, not fathers, like Bloom, makes their characters similar to Stephen Daedalus – another main character of “Ulysses”. This synthetic, Stephen-Bloom type of protagonist reveals the concept of “immaturity” in the plot of W. Gombrowicz’s novel and “the man without qualities” concept in R. Musil’s novel. These concepts comprehend the worldview and problems of the 1930s as an era of the establishment of mass society, where the problem of personality arises especially acutely.

The “Sword of Punishment” of Rus: Creating the Image of Andrey Yuryevich (Bogolyubsky) in the Kyivan Chronicle

Hennadii Noha — 2025-07-01

The twelfth-century Kyivan Chronicle is not only an important historical but also a highly artistic monument of ancient Ukrainian literature of its time. At the same time, many aspects of the poetics of this work still await study.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the means of artistic construction of the image of Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky, who was an enemy of Kyiv and sought to create a new ‘great capital’ in Zalissia.

The author of the records about Andriy, which were included in the Kyivan Chronicle, is considered to be Kuzmyshche Kyianyn, a benefactor of this prince who was tasked with glorifying him. Therefore, the work is replete with numerous stories about Prince Patron of Kuzma, which consistently form the image of a noble, God-loving and God-chosen ruler. The analysis of the text confirms that the effect of presence modelled by the author through the detailing of individual episodes was intended to add credibility to these accounts. They clearly stand out against the background of the general narrative flow. From the first brief mention in 1147 to the detailed description of Andrey's murder, the author leaves no doubt that the purpose of his work was to impose on the recipient the idea of his uniqueness and holiness. The scribe modelled a mosaic life of his hero, his biography in the most prominent deeds.

It is emphasised that the details of the chronicle narrative confirm that Andrey was not popular and respected among his immediate subordinates. He went against the conventional requirements of the time, neglected church canons, and ignored other holders of power. Andrey's vision of power made him a ‘stranger among his own’.

It is concluded that Andrey Bogolyubsky imagined himself as a punishing ‘sword of God’, and his chronicler put a lot of effort and talent into creating a corresponding information picture in the chronicle.

Dialogue of Prose and Poetry in the Works of Doris Lessing (the novel “Alfred and Emily” and the poetic sequence “The Fourteen Poems”)

Nataliia Proskurina — 2025-07-01

The article is dedicated to the work of the contemporary English writer, Nobel laureate Doris Lessing. The object of the analysis is the artist`s last novel «Alfred and Emily» (2008) and the poetic sequence «The Fourteen Poems» (1959), in which a deep motivic relationship was revealed. It was found that the motif of memory is a crucial one in author’s works, and the motifs that correlate with it (in particular, war catastrophe, childhood, oblivion, and guilt) create a common associative field.

Lessing`s last novel, which thematically fits into the discourse of texts about the First World War, reveals the features of an autofictional text. The author organically combines documentary and fiction in the work, creating a personal history of the beginning of the 20th century. The writer resorts to an alternative development of history: excludes the event traumatic for humanity (the First World War) from the novel, so the story acquires features of subjectivity. The second part of the work, a documentary, dissonates with the first, revealing the tragic consequences of the Great War. D.Lessing tries to comprehend the nature of war as a catastrophe through the traumatic experience of several generations.

The novel events are connected with the fate of D. Lessing`s parents – Alfred and Emily, whose names are mentioned in the novel`s title. The fictional and documentary parts of the work have symbolic subtitles («Alfred and Emily: a novella», «Alfred and Emily; two lives»). The paratextual elements of the text perform several functions: suggestive (title; epigraph – lines from the novel by D. H. Lawrence «Lady Chatterley`s Lover»), reflexive (preface and author`s comments; encyclopedic article), visual (photographs from the family archive).

It is proved that the poetic sequence «The Fourteen Poems» can be considered from the point of view of intertextuality as an autocontext to the novel «Alfred and Emily». The leitmotif of memory visualizes the meaningful connection between the novel «Alfred and Emily» and the poetic sequence. Both the lyrical heroine and the characters of the novel are immersed in their memories and demonstrate the existential vulnerability of the individual to the catastrophe of war. For the characters, their childhood symbolizes a safe and cozy world – home, but it is also marked by parental experience and permeated by war.

“Nature of mort” vs “still life” in a poem “Naturmort” of Igor Kalynets: between a lyric poetry and painting

Hryhorii Savchuk — 2025-07-01

In modern literary criticism a problem of study of work of Ukrainian sixties, in particular intermedial components is actual. Papers of scientists testify that Ihor Kalynets’s lyric poetry offers a rich material for a researcher.

The aim of the paper is illumination of literary-picturesque correlations in a verse “Naturmort”. The intermediate-comparative analysis is used. Composition of picture of the Ukrainian artist that chose the middle scale of image is analysed, it allows to draw detail elements. First strophe of verse “Naturmort” passes syncretism nature of picture, that contains the elements of interior, landscape and actually of still life. “Congestion” of “heroes” of this linen is felt, but a picture is not overloaded semiotic. Every element is called to establishment of equilibrium and harmony. The same intension is translated by the I. Kalynets’s verse: at the beginning of work an epithet “comfortable” is repeated three times.

The techniques of “picture within a picture” and “refrain without refrain” are analyzed.

The further development of the lyrical plot leads to the opposition “nature mort” vs “still life” (“dead nature” vs “still life”). This antonymic pair can be read through the prism of the dichotomy of “eros and thanatos” (love, happiness and death, destruction). I. Kalynets chooses eros and rejects thanatos, which speaks volumes about the worldview dominants in his life, about the remarkable willpower of a prisoner of conscience, the ability to see and honor life in all its manifestations.

It is concluded that the poem contains formal and genre features of the riturnel and triolet.

Reflections on I. Kalynets's philosophical and intermedial intentions in the poem “Naturemort” are summarized by the idea that for the poet, the feeling of harmony in the soul, love for life, which naturally develops into a desire to harmonize the environment, are organically true. The “still life” prevails over the “dead nature”.

Ioanikyi Galyatovskyi translated by Samujil Bakačyč: reception and transformation

Daryna Stoianova — 2025-07-01

This article is dedicated to the study of translational transformations in the narratives about Marian miracles from “Key of Understanding” by I. Galyatovskyi and adapted to the Serbian-Bulgarian linguistic and cultural context. The translator, Samujil Bakačyč Bakačić, integrates Galyatovskyi’s stories into his translation of the anthologe “Miracles of the Theotokos” by the Greek author Agapios Landos.

The research is based on an analysis of Bakačyč’s Venetian autograph (second half of the 17th century, National Library of St. Mark, Venice, cataloged as No. 297) and I. Galyatovskyi’s 1659 book “Key of Understanding”.

It has been emphasized that the nature and specifics of lexical, lexico-grammatical, grammatical, and stylistic translational transformations demonstrate Bakačyč’s effort to faithfully, accurately, and adequately convey the original text’s content. At the same time, they reveal his deliberate attempt to adapt the text for an ethnically distinct but genetically related audience. The study highlights that, at times, the translator's role evolves into that of a co-author. It is noted that the translation process neutralizes Galyatovskyi’s strong orientation toward the vernacular, replacing the vivid linguistic features of 17th-century Ukrainian with linguistic units characteristic of the classical church language. Although Samuil Bakačyč does not explicitly indicate the source of his additions to Landos’s of narratives, the dissemination of the anthological collection “Miracles of the Theotokos” in the Balkan-Slavic region contributed to the integration of Galyatovskyi’s works into the literary process of South Slavic nations.