OIKONIMICON OF LESYA UKRAINKA’S DRAMATURGY

Abstract

The article analyzes the semantic features of the oikonyms of Lesya Ukrainka’s drama. The main focus is on connotations acquired by oikonyms in the artistic expression of Lesya Ukrainka. Oikonyms, i.e. proper names of settlements, are historical and cultural heritage, since they reflect historical events, life, culture of the people, as well as their customs and traditions. Semantic, derivational and stylistic features of oikonyms depend on the individual characteristics of the author of the work, genre specificity, time of creation, literary direction and method. The purpose of the article is to analyze the functional load and semantic content of oikonyms that occur in Lesya Ukrainka’s dramatic works. The object of the research is the toponymic vocabulary in Lesya Ukrainka’s drama, the subject is the semantic and functional features of oikonyms as a component of the artistic and figurative system of the work. During our research, a number of methods were used, among which the descriptive method (used to analyze factual material), the quantitative counting method (to indicate the number of oikonyms in the work of art), and elements of the component analysis method, have a leading role. Oikonymicon in the artistic space of Lesya Ukrainka’s dramas is an active artistic technique that illustrates the author’s voice, the author’s concept of the characters and of the work in general, an important factor in character formation and plot development. And even the absence of oikonyms in the context of drama or its muted function becomes the manifestation and shade of the most important thing that the dramatist lays into the artistic background of the work. This helps reveal other problems that the author considers too important and for the sake of which gives life to her poetic masterpieces in pain and exhaustion, which suffered such a difficult stage fate and which are only now being read to full extent by a Ukrainian reader. We define the semantic study of the oikonymy of modern writers as the further direction of our exploration.