Christian sacred symbols in the spatio-temporal continuum of poetic language of a Ukrainian writer Yuriy Andrukhovych

Abstract

This article explores the linguistic worldview of a Ukrainian poet – postmodernist Yuriy Andrukhovytch – realized through the concept of “Christian sacred symbols” analyzed from the perspective of anthropological and cognitive aspects of lingual and cultural studies. It defines the essence and the ways of implementing the concept in the spatio-temporal continuum of poetry collection “India” as well as highlights the role of man in the poet’s imaginary world through the archetypes of the world culture and decodes symbolic meaning of cultural context of the author’s works. Contrary to a generally accepted view that the earth is round, spatial reality for the author turns out to be a planet which resembles a cake, a fl at surface, a desert, a kingdom and a bridge. The sky is seven crystal hemispheres, out lining the heavenly space with stars and planets fixed at each level. The space is represented by such geographical notions as East Asia, India, China, the river Nile. The author of the article supposes that India becomes for the writer the embodiment of our civilization at all times of mankind, another way to present man in the space of eternity, and a kind of life philosophy. The synthesis of pagan, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim and Christian ideas about man’s place in the world and his moral peace, happiness and overall love is represented by such symbols as angels, harpes, gehennr hell hrifony, dragons, percale books, lilies, honey, pythons, fl ags, birds, reptiles, saints, timpani, newts, tulips, furies, devils, Yuri’s sword, Yasmin and others.