Аналіз міфологічних структур роману-балади Валерія Шевчука “Дім на горі” в старшій школі

Abstract

The issue of studying Valerii Shevchuk’s ballad novel «House on the Hill» (Dim na hori) in secondary schools is addressed through an analysis of explicit mythological structures. The relevance of this study is justified by the author’s use of syncretic mythological imagery at various levels of literary material. This aspect needs to be taken into consideration when studying the ballad novel by students in the 11th grade. Methods and approaches for analysing explicitly expressed mythological structures are proposed. Various approaches for studying the functional role of mythological imagery in comprehending the narrative content, temporal and spatial organisation, imagery system, symbolism, ideological content, themes, issues, genre, and stylistic nature of Valerii Shevchuk’s ballad novel «House on the Hill» (Dim na hori) are outlined. The methodology for narrative-mythological analysis of the work involves the identification and in-depth examination of significant episodes with mythological imagery. This includes extracting mythical inserts, legends, fragments of mythic texts, and episodes featuring key mythologemes or symbols of mythological content. The methodology also includes establishing connections between these elements, determining their semantic significance, and analysing their artistic roles. The step-by-step approach of this work is aimed at developing students’ skills in textual analysis of the literary work. The specifics of applying narrative-mythological analysis to Valerii Shevchuk's ballad novel «House on the Hill» (Dim na hori) are detailed in a specially designed lesson for 11th-grade students. The educational activities of the students focus on analysing the key mythological structure (legends about the house on the hill), the biblical parable of the prodigal son, mythologemes-symbols (house, hill, road, woman), and establishing their connections with other layers of the work. This allows for a comprehensive understanding of the literary material and helps improve skills in critical reading and analytical-synthetic work with literary texts. Keywords: literature lessons, teaching methodology of literature, mythological imagery, explicit mythological structures, narrative-mythological analysis.