FEMALE RECEPTION OF PRISON EXPERIENCE (A CASE STUDY: THE NOVEL "ROSES BEHIND THE BARS. CONFESSION ABOUT THE WOMEN'S PRISON" BY IRYNA AHAPIEIEVA)

Abstract

A prison issue within literary female reception is exotic for Ukrainian literature. Therefore, the novel "Roses behind the Bars. Confession of a women's prison" by Iryna Ahapieieva is a conceptually new artistic and receptive model of prison experience. The author chooses the art form that we have seen in the texts of Ukrainian modernists before, such as confession (thought, appeal, stream of consciousness). But we have exclusively female space manifested by the specifics of the female body, female psychology and female language.
 In the study under analysis the main ideas will focus on two key discourses: "prison" and "prison – female corporality". In both cases the article will deal with a traumatic experience of imprisonment directly or indirectly marked by the human body.
 From the novel we learn that, on the one hand, the Ukrainian prison operates on the principles of other European penal institutions. It is hierarchical and is based on what the French thinker Michel Foucault calls the "art of distribution". Its basic principles are secrecy, discipline, controlled activity, order and so on. On the other hand, the Ukrainian prison built on the principle that remains a mystery to the main character. It is the principle of body torture that is not standardized but serves as a prison reality by default.
 In the novel the prison appears as a monstrous metaphor for the world that has not lost its sadistic desire to punish mainly the human body. However, the novel by Iryna Ahapieieva is a text not only about prison but also about a trauma. That’s why one sees a post-traumatic letter letting the author reflect on / recollect (textualize) the trauma thus getting rid of it.