PECULIARITIES OF ANALYSING EXISTENTIAL POEMS BY VASYL STUS WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF LITERATURE STUDY METHOD

Abstract

The article covers the methodological and ideological peculiarities of analysing Vasyl Stus’ works in school. In the European historical and literary context, Vasyl Stus is a prominent representative of existentialist poets of the latter half of the 20th century. The poet reinterpreted the philosophy of Stoic tragedy based on existentialism, in his own unique way. The poet resorted to existentialism primarily due to his desire to create own philosophical concept to help him survive under totalitarianism, which would make the search for answers to eternal questions about the meaning of human existence, nature of moral decision, attitude towards death etc. The artist’s poetry should be studied by high school students through a lens of existential poetics. This will work well if the Ukrainian literature teacher can improve students’ understanding of existentialism, thus making them able to understand the peculiarities of existential poetry as an aesthetic phenomenon. Even in times of trials and tribulations, Vasyl Stus was always a poet who appealed to eternal human ideals – this is the conclusion students should come to when studying the life and works of this gifted poet. When developing the concept of studying the artist’s work, the key general didactic requirements were met: the age and personalities of students were taken into account, an appropriate emotional atmosphere was created in the classroom, active learning methods were used, students’ prior experience and knowledge were employed, educational activities with maximum independence for high school students were chosen. While driving learning, it is especially important to stir students’ interest, which, being a prerequisite for learning, facilitates this process significantly. New material should be presented as a problem. Poems are much more difficult to analyse than prose. And this difficulty is primarily due to the perception subjectivity: each student perceives a work filled with emotions in their own way, developing their own feelings, emotions, thoughts. Analysis of fiction in high school requires a comprehensive approach, since it is important to determine both background and dominants of the work that will help formulate its theme and idea, describe the narrator, determine feature of the poet’s unique style. The main emphasis is on the holistic perception of Vasyl Stus by students in his two images – a charismatic personality with a paradoxical worldview and an original poet.