THE CONCEPT OF ANXIETY / ANXIOUSNESS IN THE PRIVATE SPHERE OF SERHIY ZHADAN’S NOVEL CHARACTERS («MESOPOTAMIA», «BOARDING SCHOOL»)

Abstract

The article focuses on the study of artistic ways of expressing the types of human anxiety that is manifested in private experiences of the characters of Serhiy Zhadan’s novels «Mesopotamia» and «Boarding School». It is established that the prose writer embodied various types of anxiety – basic, catastrophic, neurotic – which arise in crisis life situations of the characters and are related primarily to the unconscious protective mechanisms of their psyche. It was found out that the private anxieties of Zhadan’s novel characters are most often expressed in intrinsic impulses of aggressive or sexual nature (Romeo, Oleg), past experiences, fear of responsibility, inferiority complex (Pasha, Yura), fear ofpunishment (Mario) or threats from the environment (Yura), a neurotic desire to compensate for one’s own inferiority in the sphere of personal ambitions (Bob) or power over others (Marat). As one of the most prominent artistic embodiments of the psychology of anxiety, the reasons for its emergence and the reflection of the subjective mechanisms of its development, the author of the article identifies the structure of the characters: Marat and Sonya – as the embodiment of a whole bunch of neurotic anxieties, involving the existence of internal conflict, disruption of interpersonal relationships with a clear manifestation of aggressive (criminal or sexual) behavior;Yura, whose behavior reveals symptoms of catastrophic anxiety where his feeling of threat from everywhere leads to his own existence being threatened; children (Sasha and Pasha in the memories of their childhood from the «Boarding School», Dasha’s son from «Mesopotamia») as carriers of basic anxieties arising from childhood due to a number of misunderstandings with the adult world, which further provokes the feelings of their personal inferiority, behavioral anomalies etc. It is emphasized that the nature of the characters’ anxiety and anxiousness is somewhat irrational, that it is always «intrinsic», and that bodily symptoms – the visible «body language» – play a significant role in the reflection of the «invisible language» of feelings.