LANGUAGE AS A MARKER OF «OWN» AND «OTHER» IN SOFIA ANDRUKHOVYCH’S NOVEL

Abstract

The article explores the use of language(s) as a means of «othering» characters in the literary works of contemporary Ukrainian author Sofia Andrukhovych, specifically in the novels Сьомга (2007), Фелікс Австрія (2014), and Амадока (2020). The study presents this linguistic strategy as a significant component of the author’s stylistic approach. It highlights how characters are marked through language, how their images are constructed, and how language directly influences this process. The article also examines the aspect of perception in detail – in our study, it appears in two dimensions: first, we explore how language directly influences the reader’s perception, the ways characters perceive one another within the fictional space of the text, and the distinctive features of using language to differentiate characters in the context of the author’s style.The methodological foundation for the analysis includes Edmund Husserl’s concept of intersubjectivity, Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception, Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction, Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism, and their contemporary interpretations in Ukrainian literary studies.The article demonstrates the use of language as a tool of «othering» in Sofia Andrukhovych’s three novels and identifies its practical functions and artistic features. A comparative analysis of the texts reveals the transformation and evolution of this stylistic component. Thus, the study portrays language not merely as a means of conveying and perceiving the fictional reality of a text, but also as a broader tool: one that marks characters as «own» or «other» establishes textual distance or proximity between them, constructs identity and serves as a means of self- identification, and ultimately shapes the reader’s perception of the literary work.