THE ARTIST AS A WARRIOR: NEW HEROIC AND MYTHOLOGICAL MODES OF BIOGRAPHY IN THE PLAY OF NEDA NEZHDANA “OTVETKA@UA”

Abstract

The play about Vasyl Slipak, a soloist of the Paris National Opera who died in Eastern Ukraine in the summerof 2016 and returned to Ukraine to defend it at the front, was created by Neda Nezhdana in early 2017, at a timewhen her prototype is still in its infancy. A minimum of biographical information was published: the authormanaged to find information about opera parties that made him famous in Europe, scanty data on the singer’svolunteerism for Maidan and the Ukrainian army, she knew that the singer died unmarried, that he already hada chance to live peacefully after rotation, but still voluntarily returned to the front and fought there under the callsign “Myth”, in the end his life was taken by a bullet from a Russian sniper. As for a biographical work, even assparing as a drama, the real biographical outline is minimal. Therefore, the author had to look for other resourcesto develop this image, which is the subject of the article.Objective is to analyze the new aesthetic resources of the dramatic heroic biography, inspired by the modernwar in Eastern Ukraine, to reflect the models of their artistic realization in the play by Neda Nezhdana“OTVETKA@UA”.Methods: biographical, cultural-anthropological, receptive poetics, mythopoetics, structural-semantic.Results. Neda Nezhdana’s play “OTVETKA@UA” can be analyzed in different contexts – worksof art about war in Eastern Ukraine, modern biographical dramas about the artist, new aesthetic resourcesof modern monodrama, etc. It differs in that at the time of its creation the author had little it is known aboutthe world-famous singer and Ukrainian volunteer soldier Vasyl Slipak, whose image is realized in the work.After all, the first biographical book about this artist will be published two years after the publicationand staging of a play about him. Therefore, the author had to look for other artistic resources that wouldallow to realize the planned author’s intention. Therefore, the actual biographical outline of the workis minimal, instead, it allows the author to experiment with the biography as a framework on which tostring other dramatic strategies. In particular, in the absence of materials that a biographical character canspeak on his own behalf, Neda Nezhdana sees the point in involving a fictional protagonist in the storyand giving her the opportunity to testify about him. To do this, we have to create a plastic and dynamicimage of the narrator, visualize her stage roles, resort to stage sketches and improvised reincarnations,marked by performative disguises. Instead, the biographical image itself is scattered, replicated, dissolvedin other contexts. In this way, Vasyl Slipak’s biography is completed, and this process does not involvehistorical information and material artifacts, but “subtle matters” that are combined with philosophical,journalistic tone and light postmodern irony. The perfect image of the Hero can be created through the useof emphasized heroism, the leading modes of which are masculinity, mythology, military backgroundand the manifestation of the author ’s voice. Conclusions. Neda Nezhdana’s play “OTVETKA@UA” is an interesting and original dramatic text aboutthe war in Eastern Ukraine, which also participates in updating the textual strategies of modern biographicaldrama about the artist, actively using the following resources: substitution of the protagonist, due to which,instead of confession, biographical information is presented through testimonies and questions; completionof a real biography with the help of actual artistic resources with bringing it to the level of subtle mattersand global ethics; accentuated heroization as an application for the possible presence of the artist, whose imageis elaborated in the play, in the renewed cultural and historical pantheon of Ukraine; inscribing the hero inthe latest realities of hybrid warfare and conscious replication of the hero; powerful neomythologization, whichpartially relieves the tragic tension of the plot and allows to comprehend the national traumatic and individualbiographicalexperience in the coordinates of mythology.