ARTISTIC PECULIARITIES OF NARRATIVE CONSTRUCTION IN THE STORY “ALBINA” BY YE. KONONENKO

Abstract

The article is dedicated to investigation of features of narrative model development in the story “Albina” by Ye. Kononenko, as well as researching peculiarities of representing an extraordinary fate of a person in scope of an epoch (the story is set both in the 1990s and nowadays). Topicality of the research is defined by the prominence of Ye. Kononenko’s legacy in the modern Ukrainian literature and insufficient academic interpretation of the narrative set up of the story “Albina” which overlaps key tendencies of national narrative story modelling, primarily enhanced retrospectiveness. The article applies such methods as: narratology analysis, systematic method, receptive aesthetics (reader-response criticism). It was revealed that narration of the story ‘Albina’ actualizes recollections of the protagonist Anastasiia about her childhood neighbour named Albina. Narrator’s attention towards this secret character is motivated by the harmony of her attractive “angel-like” appearance and inner world, despite marginality of her childhood background. Remembering her childhood events in Lukianivka, the narrator somehow discovers herself and (re)considers her previous life experience. Priority position of the narrator is testified by subjectivity of the narration, appealing to potential reader, actualization of mechanisms of events’ set up, etc. Involvement of a candid flashback dialogue between characters (Anastasiia and Oleh, who also knew Albina) into the story allows to reconstruct the circumstances of Albina’s tragic death and to ensure in the unexpectedness of human fate. Analepsises and prolepsises incorporated into narrative set up allow to refine events of the past. Research points out that oppositions appearing in the narration (past – present; childhood – adulthood; spirituality – meanness; material poverty – aesthetical natural environment, etc.) involve potential reader into interpretation of the depicted.