TO PROBLEM OF EXAMINING ANIMALISTIC SYMBOLISM IN THE POETRY OF IVAN ZLATOKUDR

Abstract

Purpose. Many writers from various epochs and countries have been admirers and propagandists of the bestiary space. The purpose of the work is to analyze the animalistic images and symbols in the Ukrainian poet Ivan Zlatokudr’s lyrics in the late of 20th and early 21st century.

Methods. The elements of the following methods are used in the research: cultural and historical (helps to investigate the functions of poet’s lyrical images in the process of representation of the features of Ukrainian national nature and historical epoch), aesthetic (allows analyzing each text as a phenomenon of literature and art), miphological (for coverage of reproduction of miphological images by poet), hermeneutic (ensures free and open interpretation of texts with the possibility for new explanations), biographic (helps to describe autobiographic markers in the writer's literary works), descriptive (systematization of various elements of the animalistic space in the lyrics of the poet), intertextual (links between writer’s poems and folklore songs and literary general tradition), textual analysis (for coverage of the animalistic motifs and images of Zlatokudr’s collection). The research is based on the general methods of analysis, synthesis, observation, selection and systematization of the material.

Results. The author of this article represented the results of literary analysis accomplished over the texts of Ivan Zlatokudr with animalistic motifs and images. The symbols of a horse, dog, cow, ox, sheep, cat, deer, wolf, fox, bear and other animals play an important role in the creation of the artistic image of the world in the writer’s version and show his psychology. The article finds out that Ivan Zlatokudr has delicate understanding of bestiarial space. The effect of a hero’s co-living with the environment depicted by the author, with the animalistic environment in particular, is characteristic of writer’s lyrical collection. Ivan Zlatokudr’s works combine real and fairy plans, have characteristics of legends, tales and mysteries. The poet’s bestiarial dimension deepens understanding of nature and difficult world of human relations and feelings and it has national and similarity sounding.

Conclusions. The animalistic motifs and images in Ivan Zlatokudr’s poetry have foundations in the Ukrainian and the world miphology and folklore, and literary traditions. Animalistic symbolism in writer’s works shows the specific traits of Ukrainian mentality, historical and cultural experience of our people and aesthetic value of nation.