THE CONCEPT DESPAIR IN LESIA UKRAINKA’S POETRY COLLECTION “THOUGHTS AND DREAMS”

Abstract

The investigation is carried out within the frame of cognitive paradigm that defines its relevance. The purpose of the investigation was to reveal the concept of DESPAIR in poems by Lesia Ukrainka with the help of the conceptualcomponent analysis. Precisely this concept is examined in modern linguistic works devoted to researching the Lesia Ukrainka’s poems for the first time. There have been 35 poems published mainly in sections Melodii (Melodies) and Nevilnychi pisni (Slave songs) of poetry collection “Thoughts and Dreams” analysed. The concept DESPAIR was researched taking into consideration the fact, that the concept structure has got three layers, which are the notional, imagery and figurative. To investigate the notional component of the concept the method of definitions was applied. To determine the notion “despair” such dictionaries as “Big explanatory dictionary of modern Ukrainian language”, “Thesaurus” and “Cambridge Dictionary” were examined to see how they interpret this word. The contextual analysis was used to research the image and figurative components. The search for verbal units implementing the concept of “despair” in the poems from “Thoughts and Dreams” by Lesia Ukrainka was carried out and the main stylistic devices have been analysed. So, the results of investigation show that the concept “despair” has got a threelayer structure. The first component, the nominative one, is some informational content which is close to vocabulary meaning, and according to the results of the explanatory dictionaries’ analyses the concept “despair” means “loss of hope”. Another component is sensual one or imagery. It’s rather personal than general. The analysis of the verses from the poetry collection “Thoughts and Dreams” by Lesia Ukrainka has shown that the concept “despair” is presented by images of “sad wind”, “crying heart”, “indifferent stars”, “poor happiness”, “ruthless muse” and “weaponless language”. And analysing the last component of the concept DESPAIR, which is an interpretive field, the stylistic tools typical of the poetess’s verses under analysis have been researched. The research revealed that the figurative component of the concept DESPAIR in the analysed works by Lesia Ukrainka is mainly presented by such stylistic instruments as epithets, metaphors, similes and personification.