THE NOVEL «BODHI TREE» BY P. YATSENKO: WORLDVIEW MODEL AND POETIC

Abstract

The article contains an analysis of the novel «The Bodhi Tree» by P. Yatsenko, whose work is a rather interesting phenomenon in the context of the study of socio-cultural projections in Ukrainian literature of the 2000s or in the context of the analysis of worldview paradigms that formed some trends in the literary process. The title of the work actualizes a well-known archetype and appeals to a certain object and methodological orientation: philosophical or religious intentionality requires a disposition with a tradition, because the author author guides the reading to the reception of the principles of Buddhism. The specificity of connections between Ukrainian literature and Eastern philosophy and religion is an understudied topic in modern Ukrainian literary studies, and interest in it is growing recently. Studying the relevant implications of P. Yatsenko’s prose will provide an opportunity some aspects of Oriental studies in the field of modern literature (especially those authors who directly practice the principles of Buddhism as a philosophy of their own life). In the novel, there is an appeal to Eastern spiritual practices, intuitive insights that are part of these practices, therefore the genre matrix and genre modality of meditative prose largely determine the genre model of the work. The narrative perspective of the work includes two focalizations: the main character, who reflects external and internal events; narrator (a heterodiegetic narrator in an intradiegetic situation), which records all the events that happen to the heroine, as well as her perception and apperception, expanding it with comments and philosophical maxims. The fictional structure and architecture of P. Yatsenko’s novel are related to the genre modality of meditation. Aspects of the philosophy of Buddhism in the novel determine the specifics of the plot, the personosphere, and the narration. The sacred symbolism of the Buddhist creed determines the peculiarities of the novel’s architecture and plot. The integrity of the author’s strategy is ensured through the inter-phrase connection in the text – chain (sequential). Techniques for manifesting the philosophy of emptiness are implemented through a series of plot episodes, paraphrases, and reminiscences. The author’s ironic intonation emphasizes simulated situations. The leading concepts of Buddhist philosophy – death, freedom, illusion – the semantic center of these situations.