"ТИХОНЯ" ВАСИЛЯ ЗЕМЛЯКА ЯК ВЗІРЕЦЬ СУЧАСНОЇ УКРАЇНСЬКОЇ АНІМАЛІСТИЧНОЇ ПРОЗИ

Abstract

The author of the article outlined the generic-stylistic and compositional peculiarities of the story ‘Tykhonia’ (‘Quiet’) by Vasyl Zemliak, which belongs to the classical samples of the 20th century Ukrainian animalistic prose, as well as the literature for children. Apparently, formation of a child’s worldview and, what is more essential, child’s interactions with ‘the smaller ones’ belong to the archetypal problems of the world literature. There was shown that the through animalistic image, which is ‘a horse’ in the story analyzed, conditioned the juxtaposition of different viewpoints on the communication between a human and an animal, the formation of patterns of treating the animal by both children and adults, and thenceforth the search for the contact points of these patterns. This is the way to reveal the trends of symbolizing an animal, typical for Ukrainian worldview likewise, in the consciousness of a teenage character. In turn, V. Zemliak’s prose work displays the tendencies to combine the elements of a short story and a novella, which is evident in dynamism of the narration and formation of typically novelistic Wendepunkt (a counterpoint, in other words). The problems raised in the story by Vasyl Zemliak are relevant in our days since they make a reader think over which we wish to see the 21st century Ukrainian children like. The writer accomplished the thorough extrapolation of important social and ethical problems on displaying the subtle mental movements of the nonfictional character, in particular – the latter’s communication with an animal. Further researches in this field would help to expand the range of animalistic symbols and their interpretations, outline the linguistic means to create them regarding the writer’s individual mastery, and trace the ways of formation of their new connotations in different periods of the literary process.