PSYCHOAUTOBIOGRAPHISM OF VALERIAN PIDMOHYLNYI'S SHORT PROSE

Abstract

The article examines the specifics of Valerian Pidmohylnyi's psychoautobiography in short fiction. This allows us to come closer to understanding the psychoportrait of the artist in the author's reflection through the synthesis of literary comprehension of artistic techniques and means with elements of psychological analysis. Methodologically, the study is based on the psychopoetical paradigm, which determines the theoretical basis and applied tools. In order to define a distinct vector of the research, the literary and critical findings on the poetics and philosophy of V. Pidmohylnyi are processed. The current state of the writer's psychopoetical comprehension and prospects for further research, which involve detailed work with the text “under a microscope” in order to highlight the psychological details that provide psychoautobiographical prose of the artist, are outlined. In the practical part of the study, on the basis of two stories (“A Hard Question” and “The Military Flyer”), the author illustrates the dynamics of psychophysiological development of the personality and the formation of V. Pidmohylnyi's worldview and identifies the author's tools that make such observations possible. To this purpose, recurring mental phenomena are singled out and analyzed how they reflect the author's touches on the psychological world. In particular, the author reveals a tendency to depict the conflict between morality and nature, symbolized by the conflict between the protagonist of the story “A Hard Question” Andriy and his friend Mykola as a personalized Id with a Mephistophelean beginning. This split is also repeated in “The Military Flyer”. On the basis of the textual material of the stories, the article outlines the peculiarities of the use of artistic techniques and means (compositional dominance, grouping of characters, internal conflict) in V. Pidmohylnyi's intellectual prose to reveal the author's personal experiences. In addition, the use of biographical elements, such as studying in a parochial school, youthful emotional turmoil, etc. is noticed.