LIFE IN CHAOS: SYNERGETIC ANALYSIS OF THE WORK OF ART ABOUT WAR (MARTHA HALL KELLY “LILAC GIRLS”)

Abstract

Purpose. The purpose of the article conducts a synergistic analysis of a fiction work about the war. Based on Martha Hall Kelly’s historical novel “Lilac Girls” (2016). In this aspect, these works have not been the subject of special research. Methods. The research is based on an interdisciplinary basis, as it includes specific approaches and terminology of synergetics – abrupt transitions, bifurcation and selection, self-tuning, which are the main mechanisms of self-organization. Results. Based on interdisciplinary research, that focus on the issues of social self-organisation during global tension and confrontation, consider the types of chaos, its manifestations in society and the response of an individual and society as a whole. These issues are quite relevant since they enable understanding of the level of the society’s or individual’s self-organisation and contribute to developing a specific behaviour strategy. Diverse types of characters’ self-organisation are open, non-linear structures capable of self-development, self-projection, and self-realisation. Each character, depending on previously developed personal principles, adapts and responds to the environment where they are placed differently and has a different awareness degree regarding what is happening. Deep psychological mechanisms – emotions, experiences, lifestyle, along with cultural and historical determination – play a significant role here. The intensity of such reorientation largely depends on the nature of the environment where the system enters and its readiness to exist in it. Conclusions. The article consistently examines an individual’s adaptation to the war outbreak and their system’s transformation during its course and in peacetime. When interacting with chaos, the human system is in a critical or supercritical state and aims to form a stable, balanced, integral structure. The nature of this structure is exposed through the dynamics of changes in value consciousness, which has an oscillating character and is regulated by the traditional moral values of the family and the ethnic group. The synergistic approach provides a new perspective on the characteristics of individuals’ traits, analysis of their actions, and their ability to reorient themselves in demanding situations. At the same time, it highlights the conditions necessary to achieve homeostasis: resilience and stability of the social system’s internal state and the environment where it develops. For literary studies, it paves another way for creative work analysis.