The intelligence is devoted to the functioning of author's digression in the texts of short prose by Leonid Mosendz, a bright representative of the “Visnyk” circle of artists. The problem is considered in the context of the general author's position. The purpose of the article is to identify the artistic peculiarities of the above-mentioned out of plot techniques in the novels of the collections “Homo lenis” (1937) and “Repentance” (1939). The thoughts of previous researchers of L. Mosendz’s works (Y. Gordinsky, M. L., I. Nabitovich, O. Grytsay) about the excited problem are given. According to the classification of such literary scholars as I. Bezpechnyi, V. Paharenko, N. Ferentz and others lyrical, journalistic, philosophical and historical authorial indents are singled out for consideration. The naturalness of the introduction of such designs in the narratives “Submissive Person”, “Brother”, “Khazar”, “On the Elder”, “Bird of the High Flight”, “Minerva” is argued. Doubts about the artistic expediency of wide-ranging author’s indentations in the short stories “Roksolana”, “Turn of the cossack Michael Smilez” are expressed. A positive influence on the perception of the content of the constructs, their polemical, paradoxical, and aphoristic saturation was noted. The presence of author’s indentations in both collections of the writer is compared. Bright examples of the indentations are masterful concentrations of human feelings and emotions. An attempt is made to perceive the mentioned problem in the light of the Visnyk discourse, namely, in the context of the novels of Yurii Klen, U. Samchuk, and Y. Lipa. The results of the study open up new perspectives of scientific understanding of author’s indentations as a widespread phenomenon in the works of Ukrainian emigrational literature in general.

The article deals with the connections of the Ukrainian low culture literature during the Baroque period with the specific culture of popular laughter of Ukrainians. The Aim of the Study is to show the influence of the popular laughter culture traditions on features of humorous satirical works of the Baroque period. The observations of M. Bakhtin on the nature of funny and spectacular rituals of the Middle Ages, which are projected onto the folk ceremonial events of Ukrainians, are analyzed. In the results of the study it is established that for folk ritual of laughter, such features as festivity, nationality, universality, ambivalence, life-affirmation are characteristic. The features of the folklore worldview which affected the works of low culture during the Baroque period are found out. A burlesque creativity is seen as an artistic expression of a specific Burlesque worldview, identical to the culture of popular laughter. In folk culture, laughter serves as a universal unifying source, an expression of a full-fledged worldview, an alternative to a serious outlook. Its purpose is not destruction, but a push to self-improvement. Laughter serves as a core of the folk and the burlesque worldview and finds expression both in the works of folklore, and in literary burlesque creativity. A special imagery of laughter that influenced the low culture during the Baroque period is analyzed. Its leading feature is reduction of all high and spiritual needs to material and physical. That is why the category of holiness, the material and physical needs are analyzed. It is proved that the display of bodily needs in the folk art and the low culture is comic, hyperbolized, although generally positive, life-affirming. The study originality is connected with an attempt to analyze the burlesque heritage in two aspects: in the projection on the main structural components of the Ukrainian popular laughter culture and in view of the burlesque worldview specifics. The practical significance is in illustration the connections between the academic Burlesque culture and the culture of popular laughter during the Baroque period.

The Subject of the Study are the genre peculiarities of the Christmas story “Brother Stuttererʼs Christmas” from collection “13 Christmas stories”. It is stated that a huge amount of the works of this genre have been published, having children and adults as their target audience. Thus, it may be regarded as the resumption of a tradition of writing Christmas stories in Ukrainian literary process. But the problem is that studying those stories remains mainly unsustained — as a rule these works are analyzed in book and other kind of reviews close to Christmas and New Year holidays. The Aim of the Study is analysis of the Christmas story “Brother Stuttererʼs Christmas”, its stylistic peculiarities, specialty of genre transformation. Research methodology is presented by close reading as well as the philological method of studying of a work of fiction, so the author investigates the stylistic dominants and literary peculiarities of this Christmas novel, defining its specific characteristics as well as the symbolic figures. The Results and Originality of the Study are: the notion of «philosophic and existential Christmas story», its key features and constituent parts. These features provide for the composition based on the combination of the two different points of view. The same event is presented through perspectives of the two different characters, with their views being brought together by symbolic figures — both from outside (from the other person's perspective) and inside (in their own eyes). Every character as if repeats his own version of events, while symbolic figures, closely connected with Christmas theme, create a symbolic tunnel of notions and ideas, which unfold before the reader. Moreover, the author refines the genre specific nature of a Christmas story, the functioning of Christmas imagery in modern Ukrainian literature. The practical significance is connected with understanding the new stage of genre’s evolution and its publishing prospects.

Вивчення дихотомії «місто – степ» в історичних романах П. Загребельного, Р. Іванченко та П. Угляренка є актуальним, оскільки дає змогу простежити авторське бачення функціонування міста в умовах становлення й розвитку української середньовічної державності. Місто є культурним простором, в якому акумульовані характер, минуле народу, його світогляд та традиції. Зосередженість українських прозаїків другої половини ХХ століття на цій темі зумовлена необхідністю осмислити художньо-естетичний потенціал міста, його зміни упродовж витворення власних ціннісних пріоритетів. Мета статті – зʼясування специфіки художнього втілення концептуальних ознак середньовічного міста, які в історичних романах прозаїків кристалізуються при встановленні зв’язків зі степом. Методологічною базою дослідження є класифікація О.Астафʼєва категорії «степ» в есеїстиці Є.Маланюка: степ-територія; степ-ворог, покарання; степ-ландшафт. У результаті дослідження зʼясовано, що топографія середньовічного міста в історичних романах П. Загребельного, Р. Іванченко, П. Угляренка окреслюється за допомогою додаткових семантичних величин: міської брами, капища, печери й келії. Зосередженість на осмисленні степу як втіленні покарання стане передумовою осмислення середньовічного міста як своєрідного прихистку і водночас – модифікації його значення: втіленні незахищеності, небезпеки, виклику, останнього притулку. Вивчення принципів реалізації ландшафтних особливостей степу корелює із окресленням могутності, величі середньовічного міста та його значущості для державності Київської Русі. На основі цього виокремлено такі принципи комплексного змалювання образу: використання синестезії звуків на позначення шуму, візуальні, дотикові, запахові образи, звукообраз дзвону. Перспективи подальших студій убачаються в дослідженні парадигми середньовічного соціуму в проекції на міський простір, а також розширенні діапазону художніх текстів до початку ХХІ століття.

The present article deals with the groups, semantic fields and variant-synonymous groups of the phraseologisms in the works of Borys Grinchenko. Structural-semantic models of phraseologisms in the prose heritage of the writer are created. The article also presents tables of phraseologisms’ideographic classification. On their basis, statistical calculations were made within the framework of the phrase-thematic groups. Borys Grinchenko's prose is a broad field for the study of the ideology of phraseology, but these units in the writer's work are not explored, in what is the novelty of the article. The purpose of the exploration is to study thematic groups of phraseologisms in the works of Borys Grinchenko. In this paper, we used methods of linguistic analysis of the text, modeling, schematic, and statistical. In this work, we relied primarily on the ideographic classification of phraseologisms, undertaken by Victor and Dmytro Uzhсhenko. Scientists offer the allocation of language universals (structural semantic models — SSM), through which they build phrases. Today, this classification is applied only to the study of the vocabulary of Borys Grinchenko's works. The most stable phrases are found in the phrase-thematic group “Person” (95%), namely in the PTF “Person as a rational creature”. In this thematic field is particularly rich in phraseologisms of the PSF “Emotions, feelings, states”. This is primarily due to the fact that Borys Grinchenko had some psychological abilities, skillfully revealing the characters and feelings of his characters. In the PTG “Abstract relations” (3%) the most numerous was the PSF “Quality”, the smallest quantity — “Number”. It can be explained by the poorer extreme potential of the last field. There is no PSF “Opportunity” in this phraseological group, as opposed to the classification of Victor Uzhchenko. PTG “Nature” (2%) is also small, but it managed to allocate three SSMs. In addition, the classification of Victor Uzhchenko was supplemented by the necessary VSG in the article. The analysis of Boris Grinchenko's artistic prose in the ideographic aspect of phraseology proves its richness and diversity in almost all thematic groups.

The general feeling of malaise, if not crisis, in Literary Studies forces us to urgently look for solutions that will bring the discipline forward. This article is a call for a concentration on fundamental issues in the study of literature, and at the same time for a more rigorous and accountable methodology in studying both the content and the form of literary texts as well as readers’ reactions to them. Some illustrations of work in the area of Empirical Study of Literature are provided, showing how fiction is a powerful regulator of human emotion, especially by formal features of the text. Case 1 reports a study which looks at the influence of narrative perspective (internal focalization in the first place) on judgements of readers. Case 2 delves into the textual ingredients by which readers’ absorption in a narrative world is enhanced. These ingredients are foremost of a kind that goes under the name of “foregrounding” devices in literary studies. The conclusion from the research is that texts that are rich in foregrounding are better able to elicit a more complex response, i.e., a more powerful impact, from readers. In its turn Case 3 looks at how readers react to literary pieces dealing with deep human suffering. The findings indicate that literature is able to evoke strong feelings of empathy through its formal make-up. The results also support the argument that one’s exposure to literature is the main variable to have an impact on prosocial behaviour, irrespective of personality, gender, age or social situation. Thus we claim that literary texts exert a powerful influence on readers’ value sharing, absorption and empathy, and the impact can only be studied empirically. The article shows a way out of the current crisis, not by just opening up a new fashion, in which literary texts are “interpreted” in yet another way, mostly academically, but by taking literary texts seriously in their workings on the minds and hearts of readers — which is ultimately what texts are written for.

The article on the material of O. Chornohuz collection “Children of the Colony” explores the journalistic context of the dichotomy “own/alien”, which is realized in the ethnic, social and mythological planes and is especially relevant in the conditions of the newest challenges that Ukraine is facing now. The research problem is expansion of the functioning of the “own/alien”ʼs opposition from ethnical, national, religious sphere to the social. The aim of the study is — outline the ideological and aesthetic significance of the artistic “own/ alien” opposition in a journalistic text. In the results of the Study it is traced how the traditions of public understanding of the concept “own/ alien” with an individual author’s approach are combined in a specific journalistic text. Preference is given to the “alien” semantic field, represented by domestic and foreign politicians. Attention is focused on the ironic, satirical, sarcastic methods of imagery. The author interprets the binary opposition of “own/foreign” from the point of view of personal experience, which is gleaned from the memories of parents, fellow villagers, as well as from studies of domestic and foreign documents. The writer makes historical and political excursions using foreign sources, including Russian, which becomes the key to an objective assessment of social processes both in Ukraine and abroad during a long history. The originality of study connected with reconstruction of Author’s ideological and aesthetic concept, according to which the opposition “own/ alien” becomes a marker of difference on the mental, psychological, social levels. The practical significance of study deals with rearranged system of “own/ alien” differentiation proposed by Oleh Chornohuz, that can be successfully used as a mechanism for national identification, return to national sources, and consolidation on the basis of nationality in the context of the globalization challenges of modernity. It is concluded that the ironic passages by Chornohuz have a deep national basis, confirm the continuity of the tradition, they are enshrined in the experience of the people, their character and temperament.

Similarity of parameters of intellectual, parable and whimsical prose demands the definition of their genre dominant – differential marker characteristics that clearly distinguish between these related (but especial) genres. That is why the purpose of the paper is to substantiate the concept of genre dominant of whimsical prose. There is an urgent need to clarify controversial genre definitions of some prose works, which still cause attention of researchers. It is emphasized that whimsical prose is a separate genre, along with a parable, intellectual, folklore-mythological, etc. Therefore, these terms are not interchangeable. So it is needed to remove parallel genre definitions of prose works. The Research Novelty is a proposition to consider secondary artistic convention (artistic invention) and comic strategy as the genre dominant of whimsical prose. It has been observed that the convention may be in content (supernatural elements), in stylistic and in the structure of the text (conceptual, characterological, situational and conventional manner of the narrative). The role of comic strategy in whimsical genre is considered. The text-building factors – carnivalization, grotesque and parodying are observed. It was found out that they expressed the key semantic of whimsical prose, which is consider to be the resistance to the patterns of socialistic realism. According to socio-historic situation, direct cultural discussion – both theoretical and by means of using alternative writing strategies was impossible. As a conclusion, the ambivalent strategy of carnival as a legitimized space for creative invention, the grotesque revival of literary stamps and the subversive potential of the parody has been chosen as the most appropriate way of updating Ukrainian literature and fighting for its artistic value. The proposed criteria give the opportunity to substantiate scientifically the corpus of whimsical prose texts, which makes the practical value of work.

Stage direction’s poetic and its correlation with the exchange part of the text are excited a great interest. This question is observed on the material of playwrights’ works from different countries and historical epochs. This problem is observed by well-known linguists and literary critics such as B. Golubovsky, S. Krzhizhanovsky, N. Nikolina, N. Ischuk-Fadeeva, M. Sulyma, S. Khorob, A. Zorin, A. Gabdullina, etc.The article deals with the problems of the stage directions’s classification according to their functions in the dramatic works. The aim of the article is to study the spectrum of the most debatable problems of the terminological definition of the introductory stage direction, its functions, places and conceptual corpus in the general structure of the dramatic text.For further literary studies, the typological classification of the stage direction as a structural element of a dramatic work should be investigated. Works of Ukrainian scientist have not studied the wide spectrum of the stage direction’s problems and its relations with the lines included compositional arrangement in the text of the dramatic work. In our opinion, the stage directions can be divided into the introductory stage directions, intraclassical stage directions, final stage directions, intercostal stage directions. Its main function is preliminary acquaintance of the reader with the temporal and spatial circumstance of the reproduced action’s plot.The author focused his attention on the issues of introductory stage direction’s semantic peculiarities on the material of national and foreign dramatic texts. The most special works of national and foreign scientists about this problem are analyzed. Varieties of the introductory stage direction and it’s place in the general structure of dramatic text are explored.In general, the problem of correlation between the introductory stage direction and the author’s dramatic text, its stage performance by the theatrical director is still opened and will be required further research.