ARCHETYPE «SHADOW” IN «STALINKA” BY OLES ULYANENKO

Abstract

The article deals with Oles Ulyanenko’s first novel «Stalinka» (1994), which presented the appearance of a new extraordinary artist in literature. Today we have a lot of research for this novel and the writer’s works in general, with a radically opposite representation of the artistic component of his works. There are studies, and not only in which the artist is accused of immorality and other «sins», but also those that contain attempts to define the writer as a kind of seer. Such ambiguity and, at the same time, high appreciation of the work of the writer by P. Zahrebelnyi, who initiated the awarding to the novice writer of the unique Small Shevchenko Prize (1997) for the novel «Stalinka», as well as F. Shteinbuk’s monograph «Pid Znakom Savaofa» or «Tam, de …» Ulyanenko» (2020) opened new dimensions for the analysis of the writer’s work. It inspired the author of the publication to comprehend the work of the extraordinary artist from archetypal criticism. The selection of the archetype «shadow» is represented in work in various guises. It is dominant for understanding the characters of the work. The interpretation of the text with the selection of this archetype helps reveal new meanings encoded by the author and gives the work new dimensions in understanding the author’s hyperbole of human sins. The publication argues that the malignant transformation of the individual is the result of external influences associated with the totalitarian reality of Stalin’s time. The general situation in the country has objectified the «shadow” archetype as the collective unconscious in its worst manifestations. Man’s overcoming of his dark nature is presented in the novel through the image of Lord-Yonka, who undergoes a kind of initiation, i.e., a series of dedicated trials, and eventually overcomes the dark part of his soul, becomes ready for another life.