SEMANTICS AND POETICS OF THE MOTIVE STRUCTURE OF THE MYTHOLOGEM OF AIR IN THE LYRICS OF V. STUS AND A. TARKOVSKYI

Abstract

The paper studies the peculiarities and functional variants of the reception of the mythologem of air in the lyrics of V. Stus and A. Tarkovskyi in a comparative aspect. It details the role and place of the authors’ interpretation in the artists’ mythopoetical picture of the world. The typical and individual interpretations of the axiological constant of the authors’ mythopoetical picture of the world, which is the mythologem of air, have been also outlined. The attention is focused on the fact that the basis of the structure of the mythopoetical picture of the world are individual meanings and ideas, which are characterized by the collective features of a particular ethnic group (which is also characteristic of the general picture of the world). The understanding of poets’ works has been spread by means of comparative analysis. It allows to rethink them in the context of the literary process of the second half of the 20th century.
The dominant feature of the ancient perception of air is ambivalence. Oppositional relations between the semantics of air and earth mythologems create the opposition “heavenly” (sacred) – “earthly” (profane). The importance and role of the images of sky, wind and birds in the mythopoetic world view of V. Stus and A. Tarkovskiy are found out. The main ontological sub-motifs which become apparent due to air imagery are: sub-motifs of life and death, soul, time, flight, transition, reincarnation, ascension, escape, purification, punishment, freedom and others. It is noted that the motif of love is a separate category. The presentation as a dominant motif of harmony of nature in close interaction with the motif of creation is typical for A. Tarkovsky’s lyrics. As for V. Stus’ lyrics, the representation of the motif of flight gets a special significance as a specific feature of his mythological world.