Respondent

Voinska Kateryna Romanivna

Theme

The archetypeness of the artistic thinking in Valeriy Shevchuk’s short prose

Defence Date

29.09.2017

Annotation

The investigation is devoted to the analysis of archetypeness in short prose by Val.
Shevchuk from the perspective of the cultural-historical paradigm changes, since such a
context eloquently represents the dynamic of the writer ideological focus. It is
systematized basic directions of study for writer’s archetypal thinking. Terminology of
archetypal literary criticism is improved. As a consequence, the archetype is suggested to
understand as an empirically inaccessible, genetically obtained human potential. It is the
ontological basis of artistic imagery and the guarantee of numinous dialogicity, which
allows to reach eternal senses. Therefore, archetypal images appear to be concrete artistic
realizations of the archetype; minimal representatives of archetypeness. At the same time
archetypeness is a multifaceted and heterogeneous implementation of the archetype, that
shows up as universal metatextual context, embracing the completeness of artistic modes
of anthropological experience.
For the first time in Ukrainian Literary Studies the metatheory of archetypeness is
formulated. The dissertation emphasizes the ontological-existential and phenomenological
dimensions of archetypeness in the Valeriy Shevchuk artistic thinking. The spectrum of
archetypal criticism is extended by theoretical concepts of archetypal transitiveness,
colonial status and postcolonial discourse, a hybrid cultural personality that is split
between the past and the future, collective and private. The proposed investigation sheds
the light on the problems of archetypeness in the context of post-colonial studies, wich is a
novelty in archetypal literary criticism. Therefore one of main achivements of the
dissertations is the model for investigation of archetypeness in artistic text. The model is
established by using correlation of archetypal frames thirst – limit– Another. By exploiting
the analysis of main courses in study of archetypeness a concept of archetypal motion is
singled out. It is an integrative element that is accumulating fundamental concepts of
actualization of human numinous experience (archetypal frame). The Val. Shevchuk topos
model of archetypal thinking is described, i.e. topos of transitiveness – topos of
transitiveless – topos of nontransitiveness. It is demonstrated that the topos of
transitiveless represents simulacra of archetypal thirst, at the same time the topos of
transitiveness shows the regressive substitute of archetypal limit. Consequently, it is
derived the models that form the basis for existential direction of regressive protagonist,
i.e. dullness – gap in the topos of transitiveless and dullness – impersonality in the topos of
nontransitiveness. In both these models the frame of dullness is an antithesis of the
archetypal thirst, the gap is an antipode of the archetypal limit while the impersonality
contrasts with Another. These regressive models of archetypeness unmasks the principles
of colonial mechanisms.
The archetypal analysis of Shevchuk’s short prose allows to state that the topos of
transitiveless in the archetypal thinking of the writer presents the story of the one who has
lost his life. The archetypal motion of the transitiveless in the colonial discourse of Val.
Shevchuk is escaping from nothingness to somewhere. The topos of nontransitiveness
presents the story of the one who did not accept his life, since he becames unhistorical and
frigid. Such “motion of the soul” is reproduced in the images of “convulsions of self-
preservation”. The archetypal motion of the nontransitive in the colonial discourse of the
writer is a move from “nothingness” to nowhere, which is depicted via images of the
“zone” (gaps). In postcolonial discourse, this detail was modified in the form of “thread-
nude” – the cadaver worm as a sign of decomposition. In postcolonial works, nontransitive
escapes from “nothingness” in nothing. The images of the “subtypical” existence
(existential monologue) represent in Shevchuk’s prose attempts to find out their own
essence beyond the archetypal Another, ending with a fatal defeat of the protagonists.
It has been discovered that the topos of transitiveness represents the archetypal
motion in the semiotic space of recalling parent’s sanctuary. In the colonial discourse the
transitiveness is described in the horizontal plane and the images of thirs are bounded by
the anthropological time-space (the transit hero yearns for home). On the contrary, the
postcolonial writer texts show the transit hero in the vertical plane, where the archetypal
Another descends towards hero and human time-space is not an obstacle in this case. The
images of anamnesis in Val. Shevchuk’s archetypal thinking correlate with the motive of
resurrection as transcending itself towards numinous. The topos of transitiveness in short
prose by Val. Shevchuk describes the static motion- contemplation, which consists in
discovering of Another. It is worth mentioning that in author’s colonial discourse the
images of archetypal motion marked by the preposition “from” (from a doorstep, from a
father). The oposite picture is observed in the postcolonial discouse, when the heros move
“towards” (toward an Another or mother, towards a beloved or home). Hence in writer’s
archetypal thinking the colonial protagonists look for the home while the postolonial ones
come back home. As a result the archetypal motive of change of worlds opens a wide
perspective of images that describe the archetypal motion as ontological transitiveness. By
exploring Val. Shevchuk’s archetypal thinking, in the thesis we touch on the everlasting
problem of authentic existence as an important constant of human consciousness.
Archetypeness of Val. Shevchuk’s artistic thinking presents the moment of evangel which
is impossible to catch or appropriate, because this is a moment of the contemplation of
archetype, in which we cognize the ontological infinity of similarities.
Key words: archetypе, archetypal thinking, archetypal frame, topos, transitiveness,
colonial discourse, postcolonial discourse.

Dissertation File

Autosummary File