CC BY
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DOI: 10.24234/wisdom.v22i2.714 Larysa HORBOLIS, Anna CHERNYSH, Olena ISHCHENKO, Maryna KUSHNIEROVA
CORPOREALITY NARRATIVE IN UKRAINIAN LITERATURE: CULTUROSOPHICAL ASPECT
Abstract
The article analyses the features of artistic representation of the body in the Ukrainian literature of the 19th - early 21st century in a diachronic way. It is noted that each period of development of Ukrainian literature has its own specific image of the character with emphasis on the complex inner world, features of interpersonal relations and given the moral and ethical principles of society, the identity of folk culture and traditions, trends in literature, philosophical thought etc. Corporeality is represented in various ways in the works of Ukrainian writers of the late 20th - early 21st century due to the intensification of postmodern practice, lack of censorship, changing worldviews of Ukrainian society and expanding thematic, genre range of literary works. Corporeality is an eloquent characteristic of the character, the cultural and historical space of the day, and the stylistic discourse of literature. The problem raised in the article allows us to position literature as a medium for a deeper understanding of corporality in the humanitarian space and overcoming historically established social stereotypes.
Keywords: literary process, character, philosophism, cultural aspect, national identity, corporeality, tradition.
Introduction
Each literary epoch has its own distinctive features, which are artistically realised at different levels of literary text organisation - problem-thematic, genealogical, narratological, architectural, visual, etc., which are closely related to many fields of science (philosophy, psychology, culturology, etc.), other arts (painting, music, choreography, cinema, etc.), culture in general, the realities of life (with significant events), natural changes in human consciousness, the individual experience of the writer.
Pluralism of methodologies, interdisciplinary space as a necessary plane for the study of literary texts, and attention to the complex internal structures of the characters (with emphasis on gender, sociocultural, gerontological and other
manifestations) expand the interpretive boundaries of theoretical and literary thought, because "modem philosophical knowledge of man is determined by the need to systematise and conceptualise heterogeneous and diverse material" (Sla-bouz, Butko, Mozhovyi, Nikitina, & Matorina, 2021, p. 45). At the beginning of the 21st century, Ukrainian literary studies intensified psychological, psychoanalytic and anthropological aspects of the study of literary texts, as evidenced by T. Gundorova, S. Pavlychko, M. Pavlyshyn, Ya. Polishchuk, L. Tarnashynska, M. Tkachuk, F. Shteinbuk and others.
Theoretical Research Methods
The chosen culturosophical vector of comprehension of corporeality aims to clarify the
specifics of artistic manifestation of this phenomenon in the Ukrainian literary tradition, to substantiate corporeality as one of the indicative characteristics of Ukrainian literary discourse, a component of poetics and understanding of philosophical principles of the work among the corpus of methodologies) to the study of artistic manifestations of corporeality in Ukrainian literature in the diachronic dimension. The conclusions and generalisations obtained in the course of the study in the future can be an essential addition to the multifaceted understanding of the subject of corporeality, the formation of principles and ways of understanding and interpreting the philosophical foundations of literature.
We understand corporeality as "a concept that eliminates the interpretation of the subject as transcendental, introduces into scientific circulation the concepts of sexuality, affect, perversion, death, etc." (Kovaliv, 2007, p. 485). The term "body" is used to mean "traditional aesthetic, socio-humanitarian knowledge, which means corporality (internal aspect), endowed with the functions of mentality (external aspect)" (Kovaliv, 2007, p. 485). Thus, we will talk not only about the physical and biological characteristics but also about the anthropological sensory component of the characters of literary works because, according to O. Losev (1993), "human corporeality means that, except the body, all man is taken into account psyche, its mental composition, with its individual characteristics" (p. 144). Furthermore, if the body "loses sensory meaning, it ceases to be itself" (Kovaliv, 2007, p. 485). Thus, the mode of the body in literary criticism, in contrast to the existing biological, medical, and clinical approaches, requires interpretation of the interaction of corporeal with mental organisation, intellectual component, emotional and emotional capabilities of the character, combining anthropological and cultural narratives.
Research Results and Discussions
The volume of the article does not allow us to
cover a wide range of works with artistically declared corporeality (in different aspects, angles and different philosophical accents), so we will involve only those literary texts that are indicative, staged, testify to the duration and progress of artistic presentation of corporeality in Ukrainian literary tradition.
Marking of Ukrainian literary texts with corporeality has a long tradition, starting with texts of the Kyiv-Russian period of formation of Ukrainian literature, in particular, "Teachings of Volodymyr Monomakh to Children", works of Ukrainian philosopher G. Skovoroda. This tradition has its own specifics, coordinated by the corpus of Ukrainian folk customs, traditions, and folk moral norms, which helps researchers to trace the originality of artistic realisation of the body in Ukrainian literature, to clarify their ideological and semantic essence and thus expand and deepen the anthropological aspect of the study. Ukrainian literature, which in modern Ukrainian theoretical and literary thought is activated along with other productive methodologies of interpretation of texts - psychological, psychoanalytic, postcolonial, etc.
In modern literary criticism, it is crucial to apply the latest methodologies and techniques to the interpretation of complex in its architecture, philosophical and intellectual content, subtextual components, etc., texts. A distinct anthropological component is noticeable in the works of Ukrainian researchers T. Gundorova, J. Polish-chuk, V. Tabachkovsky, L. Tarnashynska, M. Tkachuk, F. Shteinbuk and others. The theoretical and methodological basis of their studies in the works of R. Bart, R. Delege, J. Derrida, J. Le Goff, F. Guattari, M. Foucault, O. Losev, M. Merleau-Ponty, R. Nietzsche, V. Podorohy, G. Simmel, B. Waldenfels, etc., strengthen the interdisciplinary component of the study of corporeality, contribute to the study of the specifics of its artistic expression in literary texts. M. Tkachuk (2009) emphasises that "a special place in philosophical and anthropological issues is given to the body, the issue of ontological uni-
versals, assessments of the human body in terms of essential and existential characteristics as a phenomenon of culture and nature, complex relationships between body and soul" (p. 47). The researcher proposes to consider the problem of corporeality in a broad aesthetic context: "In the culture of the Ukrainian Baroque of the 17th and 18th centuries, the theme of the body is closely connected with the problem of Baroque anthropology, which unfolded in the stream of Renaissance anthropology, as well as the Enlightenment concept of man" (Tkachuk, 2009, p. 51). Researching Kotlyarevsky's "Aeneid" in anthropological and aesthetic aspects, M. Tkachuk (2009) emphasises the critical characteristics of the work (a reference to the past, historiosophical and socio-ethical components): "Kotlyarevsky's anthropological discourse covers the ontology of man in a complex vortex of time. In the stream of literary anthropology, it is carried out in ideological and figurative, symbolic and allegorical and other forms of word art" (p. 53). In the "Aeneid", I. Kotlyarevsky depicts a body that affirms the vitality of the natures of Aeneas and the Trojans and their ability to overcome difficulties. The carnival-buffoonery pathos of I. Kotlyarevsky's work is semantically correlated with "folk laughter culture" (by M. Bakhtin), revealing the emotionality, life-affirming position and bodily sensuality of the heroes; energy. The poet "portrayed man through the prism of the culture of the Ukrainian people", - concludes M. Tkachuk (2009, p. 58).
It is well known that the development of literature is inseparable from the philosophical ideas of the day, influencing the formation of the foundations of artistic thought. For example, sen-timentalism in Ukrainian literature is inseparable from the works of P. Yurkevich's "From the Science of the Human Spirit", "Heart and its Significance in the Spiritual Life of Man on the Teachings of the Word of God", which declares "philosophy of heart", designed by Ukrainian writers: the sensuality of the character, the beauty of his soul and body, the experience of the heart, hon-
esty, kindness, sincerity, politeness - the main characteristics of the characters in the works of G. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko, P. Kulish.
Clothing declares the social status of the character of Ukrainian literature of the 19th century and presents his body as an "addition to the body" (M. Merleau-Ponty), a kind of illustration of his virtues and moral principles. Ukrainian romanticism literature depicts externally and internally beautiful characters, lovers, extraordinary personalities prone to intense and vivid experiences, passions, ecstasy, and attention to emotional impulses and intuitive guesses (Ko-valiv, 2007). The inability to combine the desired with the real creates a dichotomy, lack of initiative of the character, sadness of mood, deepening his loneliness (works of romantic poets). At the heart of the clear division of characters into positive and negative is the principle of their observance of the rules of religious morality. In this thematic-problematic aspect, corporality becomes essential because it is an expression of the moral virtues of the character. Deciphering the body requires delving into the subtext of the work (for example, the disgraced girl's body in "Katerina" by T. Shevchenko or the body that does not correspond to the folk ideal of beauty in the poem "Dream" by T. Shevchenko), which happened with the intensification of anti-colonial discourse in Ukrainian literature 90s of the 20th century.
The era of Modernism in Ukrainian literature radically changes the image of the body and its ideological and philosophical load in work. If in the literature of realism, the beauty of the body and the diligence of the character were in the same semantic plane, then, according to T. Gun-dorova (2013), "in which different cultural signs and different cultural practices are inscribed" (p. 159). The body is perceived not only by the bio-field/mass/flesh: modernism primarily declares latent, hidden from prying eyes, intra-spiritual processes, which also activate mental, spiritual, instructive, carnal, or instinctive desires, manifest the consciousness of the conscious, subcon-
scious. The unconscious, in which the body is a means of achieving pleasure, suppressing instincts, and also acts as biological matter, capable of suffering, pain, disease and other mental and physical pathologies. In the period of Ukrainian literary modernism, the body is one of the powerful tools of psychosomatic and mental manifestation, laying a powerful platform for the development of psychoanalysis in the literary discourse of Ukraine.
Corporeality in the works of Ukrainian writers of the late 19th - early 20th century is presented as:
1. an indicator of the culture of the character-peasant, who presents himself as a work that repeats the mental connections of Ukrainians with the land (prose by V. Stefanyk, O. Ko-bylyanska). In "The Stone Cross" by V. Stefanyk, almost for the first time in Ukrainian literature, depicted the mutilated body of the protagonist;
2. an exponent of the hedonistic worldview of the characters, the philosophy of Hutsul vitalism (the cycle "Parasochka" by Marko Cher-emshina, "The Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" by M. Kotsyubynsky);
3. a centre of mental suffering, pain, and bodily wounds inflicted by war (anti-war prose by Marko Cheremshina, 0. Kobylyanska, 0. Turyansky, M. Yatskiv);
4. carrier of philosophical issues, existential motives (dramaturgy by Oleksandr Oles, V. Vynnychenko);
5. artistic construct that testifies to the prospects of mastering neo-romanticism, expressionism, neorealism, symbolism, and naturalism (and partly their synthesis) in modernist Ukrainian literary texts (works of M. Kotsyubynsky, Lesya Ukrainka, V. Vynnychenko);
6. the declarant of folklore and Ukrainian mythological tradition ("The Forest Song" by Lesya Ukrainka).
Despite such a branched significance of the body in Ukrainian literary modernism, it is crucial that the culture of body image in this period
is based on the aesthetics of folklore and folk morality, according to which, for example, adultery is not a sin, and asceticism is treated as a deviation from the norm. Pre-postmodern understanding and modelling in the fiction of important categories of deviation, pathology, and non-normative. In this way, as it seems to us, the Ukrainian tradition of forming modes of bodily narrative in literature with its transformations, progress, modernisation and tendency to blur the boundaries in the presentation of the body as an expressive producer of poetic speech in the text.
Modernistically concise, expressive, eloquent, with an emphasis on details (often symbolic) and a complex world of experiences, emotions, and moods of the characters, characteristic of the actual in the late 19th - early 20th-century expressionism principle of reflection of the internal through the external depicted body, often unattractive, in an unexpected thematic-problematic context. The events of the First World War "opened" another way of depicting physicality -through physical and mental trauma. Freud's ideas (on the structure of the psyche), A. Bergson (on the "third eye"), K.-G. Jung (on the collective unconscious), F. Nietzsche (on the superman), A. Schopenhauer (on pessimism) and others are relevant in this period. These ideas form a strong philosophical basis of world modernism and Ukrainian literary modernism, where the human body occupies one of the key places. At the forefront is a strong-willed, controversial person who is able to resist the masses to declare their national, social, and sexual identity. Moral and ethical issues and issues of family relations with an emphasis on the body are gaining new importance not only in works of art, for example, by V. Vynnychenko ("Black Panther and Polar Bear", "Memento", "Beauty and Power", "Moment"), but also his philosophical work (treatise "Concordism"). Bold and sometimes provocatively depicted in the works of this writer, corporeality allows contemporary critics to talk about experiments with morality, and its relativity, and modern literary critic S. Pavlychko (2002) to
conclude about Modernism, which "offered a love discourse of something else. He was interested in love as a complex phenomenon of human life, a philosophy of feeling, and sexuality in a much deeper sense and more frank depiction than has ever happened in Ukrainian prose" (p. 226). Thus, in the literature of Modernism, moral and ethical issues deepen, and the system of images not only diversifies but also changes the focus of the image of the character, the nature of his psychologization and individualisation.
In the Ukrainian literature of Modernism, the theme of the sick body appears - as an artistic reaction to common in the late 19th - early 20th century and not yet studied diseases (neurosis, tuberculosis). Philosophically rethought aesthetics of the diseased body in the works of Ukrainian writers ("Blue Rose", "Voice Strings" by Lesya Ukrainka, etc.), first formed the foundation for a neo-romantic character - strong-willed, who with his spirit resisted the circumstances, and secondly, raised the psychologism of literature to a higher level of comprehension of such existential as freedom, the meaning of life, suffering. A person who appears above the crowd (the crowd still cannot position itself with a community united by a common idea) meets the needs of Ukrainian literature and the needs of Ukrainian society at the turn of the century.
The multifaceted block of moral and ethical, existential issues in the Ukrainian literature of this period, which testifies to the active search by writers for the required type of character, is supplemented by 1) collections of poems "The Withered Leaves" by I. Franko, "The Palm Branch" by A. Krymsky about unhappy love, the suffering of a lyrical character; 2) creative works by the poets of the "Young Muse", in which, given the popular ideas of F. Nietzsche, the works of S. Baudelaire, P. Verlaine, paintings by E. Munk, F. von Stuck, and others. In this poetry, the image of a woman is reinterpreted: women appear in the images of hyenas, vampires, and maenads, who ruthlessly tear the body of their victim - a man; 3) a novel about the relationship
of two men "Andriy Lagovsky" by A. Krymsky, which together with experimental novels and novels by V. Vynnychenko opened taboo or unpopular topics and paved the way for the Ukrainian intellectual and psychoanalytic novel. For example, V. Petrov continues to legalise samesex relationships ("Doctor Seraficus"), broadcasting "friendship" as one of the ways to build characters.
S. Pavlychko (2002) notes different models of love discourse in the 1920s in Ukraine, which "turned out to be much more outspoken than ever before. For Khvylovy, love was first and foremost sex, the phenomenon of the lower realm of life. Behind Saussure's superficial lyricism lurked a savage and brutal male force liberated by the demon of revolution. In the poetry and prose of the 1920s, the male romance of irresponsible sexual relations prevailed. Only the neoclassi-cists were aristocratic, restrained, and even cold in their feelings. The most 'loving' poet among them was Rylsky, who liked to write not so much about feelings as about the philosophies of their past. Meanwhile, Semenko invented 'eroticism' completely devoid of eroticism, and Ty-chyna declared his fear of eroticism and the ab-stractness of his poetic loves..." (p. 226). Thus, intellectual prose, which became more active in Ukrainian literature in the 1920s along with the strengthening of existential discourse, focuses on corporeality. For example, in the novel "The City" by V. Pidmohylny, the body is a means of gaining a place in society, but the loneliness of the protagonist does not leave and thoughts about the absurdity and futility of life. S. Pavlychko (2002) rightly remarks about V. Pidmohylny's innovative approach to understanding the body: "Pidmohylny finally broke the populist stereotype of this prose, where there was a gap in the place of body and sexuality. He made the body the protagonist of 'The City' and put forward the idea of the duality of man, which consists of angelic and animal principles. Pidmohylny's characters suffer from a dichotomy between the soul (mind, intellectual sphere) and the body, sexual
desire. Harmony between these two areas is difficult. In fact, according to the author, it is impossible. Therefore, Pidmohylny's sexuality excludes love and is a pleasure for the body. The love, the high feeling that the heroes chase, never becomes their erotic experience" (p. 226). The creative works by V. Pidmohylny, as well as M. Khvylovy, A. Krymsky and V. Petrov, re-vectorise Ukrainian epics, in which the moral and ethical field significantly expands, emphasises and specifies unusual and even bold for the Ukrainian literature of the first third of the twentieth topics of sex, pathological sexual inclinations, perversions, erotomania. The statement is significantly reflected in the actual poetic and narrative system of works: the text reduces the seriousness of feelings and the height of sincere intentions, replacing them with compulsive, fragmentary-rhizomatic inclusions, declaring human lust, instinct, anxiety, dissatisfaction that grows, while psychologising and straining the text.
S. Pavlychko (2002) also adds an essential emphasis for understanding our topic: "Pidmohylny is almost exclusively about male sexuality, which is a cruel, destructive force for women... If the male nature in sex seeks victory, the female, according to Pidmohylny, is doomed to find humiliation and defeat (p. 227). This vector of vision of sexual issues in Ukrainian literature deepens the artistically depicted sphere of conflict and diversifies genre and narrative forms. The figures of writers and scientists M. Kosto-marov and P. Kulish in the biographical novels of another writer of this period - V. Petrov - appear as "real people". They have problems, they are lonely, in despair, with neuroses, dissatisfaction with themselves, "they were part of the general, inherent in the neoclassical discourse of demystification of Ukrainian literature and its history" (Pavlychko, 2002, p. 219), which, we add, at the beginning of the 21st century actual-ised in the psychoanalytic biographical prose by S. Protsyuk.
The novels by V. Pidmohylny and V. Petrov did not correspond to the method of socialist re-
alism proclaimed by the totalitarian system with a "correct" character endowed with positive traits and corporeality hidden in decent and unprovoc-ative clothing as an essential addition to the full description; he was a conscientious Soviet worker, a builder of communism, whose body beauty was manifested in tireless work for the benefit of the fatherland (prose by Oles Honchar). Such a character was presented in official Ukrainian literature until the 1990s. Nevertheless, it is worth remembering the literary underground, as it is called by R. Kharchuk (2008) - writers L. Dib-rov, L. Poderviansky, and B. Zholdak, whose creative work is rightly considered a pre-postmo-dern phenomenon (p. 107). Important at this time was "bizarre prose" (according to many literary critics - the Ukrainian version of "magical realism", presented in world literature by G. Marquez), where humour, irony, play, and parody became fundamental in the image of the character and his body. This continued and renewed (through coding and philosophical connotations) the traditions of Ukrainian laughter culture. For example, the idea of the main character of the novel lending her husband for a month to another woman ("Borrowed Husband" by E. Gutsal) at first glance seems a joke, but it hides a satire on the Soviet system's thesis of the secondary and insignificance of sexual intercourse in marriage. E. Gutsal's humour emphasises that the performance of marital responsibilities is the basis of harmony, comfort, order, and mutual understanding in the family, and a person's refusal to have sex is a refusal of his nature.
Creative Works about the Holodomor, collectivisation ("Maria" by U. Samchuk), NKVD (or People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs) torture chambers, political prisoners' camps ("The Garden of Gethsemane" by Ivan Bagryany, "Thorn" by M. Osadchy, poetry by V. Stus) did not correspond to the socialist-realist canon and were banned by Soviet censorship. In these texts, with the maximum realism and extreme emotionality, the facts-proofs of physical torture of a body, psychological trauma of the person, humil-
iation of its dignity, and destruction of existential space of the person are drawn. These works of art with a clear protest sound deepened the onto-logical issues in Ukrainian literature. Compared to the early 20th century, they marked other facets of the problem associated with the emotional and psychological experiences of the individual in an extreme situation. The whole depth of experiences in the works of various genres of writers was built on artistically rethought ideas of A. Camus, M. Heidegger, J.-P. Sartre affected the formation of the national identity of the characters in Ukrainian literature.
A particular group in Ukrainian literature of the second half of the 20th century composed works on the Chornobyl theme, which are also "marked" by the flesh and contain deep symbolic and metaphorical images (I. Drach, V. Yavor-ivsky). However, the key significance of these works and the Chornobyl accident for Ukrainian literature and culture, in general, is that they formed a kind of semantic narrative platform for the concept of "post-Chornobyl library". This concept was introduced into the scientific discourse of the late 20 century by T. Gundorova (2013), referring to the carnivalised and post-apocalyptic post-Chornobyl text of Ukrainian postmodernism. She understands Chornobyl as a word symbol denoting the state of the presence of trauma, as an "event in the author's inner life" (Pavlyshyn, 1997, p. 177) and as a fact in the history of Ukraine that gave rise to the symptoms of the "sick body" in modern Ukrainian literature.
Globalisation changes caused by the ecological crisis, economic instability, military conflicts, etc., change and traumatise the consciousness of the modern person. Since the 1990s, the presentation of corporeality in Ukrainian literature has changed dramatically: the material narrative signals changes in the public consciousness and the emergence of a post-totalitarian "game person" (T. Gundorova). We can make assumptions: if not for the method of socialist realism, which totally embraced Ukrainian culture for several
decades and deprived the productive and promising ideas of Z. Freud, Nietzsche and others for the development of literary methodology (the works of these scientists were banned in Soviet Ukraine), then Ukrainian literature (the 1990s) would not be so protesting and explosive in the aspect of depicting corporeality. The post-Soviet world perishes in unspirituality - this is noted, for example, by E. Gutsalo in his works "Fornication: Ukraine: Debauchery and Degeneration", "Improvisations of the Flesh", "Madness", "Tick", warning against the spiritual degeneration of the nation, against false values "porn-glamour" (Kjubilie, 2009), protesting against the system that destroys the principles of the Ukrainian family, emphasising that there are no trifles in human life. Everything, including sexual life, should be harmonious and filled with positive and sincere feelings.
Ukraine's independence in 1991 was reflected not only on the political map but also in literary texts - changing the style, concept, and ideological orientation of literary works. Psychosocial devastation of the post-Soviet era destroys the traditional type of character: in the foreground in the image of a hero with a split or multiple consciousnesses, a marginal personality, often characterised by the unconscious, instincts, flow of consciousness, mental deviations, his always corporeal. At the poetic level, this is expressed in the rejection of plot writing, a high level of metaphor, the emotional component of narration, architecture, and the dominance of onyric (works of Oles Ulyanenko, Yu. Izdryk, and S. Protsyuk). This is a postmodern body, "it is both the same and not the same or different" (Gundorova, 2013, p. 161). He is a receiver and collector of impressions that are pleasant for it -"it experiences sexual, gastronomic, auditory, visual and other pleasant sensations" (Polishuk, 2016, p. 150), becoming dependent on them, becoming a tool for pleasant experiences without any restrictions, but with increasing strength and energy. In the Ukrainian literature at the beginning of the 21st century, the monstrous body is
becoming more active - as an emblem of modern post-totalitarian society, says T. Gundorova. It supports the views of researchers M. Lipovet-sky and A. Etkind that images of hybrid werewolves are the result of an unexplored traumatic memory of the Soviet past (Gundorova, 2013, p. 161). Such "bodily variability" is actively developed by Ukrainian writers in literary works (Dara Korniy, O. Zabuzhko, V. Eshkilev).
All types of the characters of this period, which are conditionally grouped by O. Stavny-cha (2017, p. 321), among a number of indicative characteristics, are "marked" and corporeality: the image of the character-statesman is depicted with naturalism and often exaggerated physiology ("Scrap waste" by P. Zagrebelny). A vampire woman with unbridled passion represents a consumer; the type of "new woman" with masculine traits in character, with "devilish ingenuity", strength, consistency, desire for power, fame and fortune, and the courage to challenge conventions. "The common defining feature of heroines of this type, - summarises O. Stavnycha (2017) - irony and self-irony, confrontation with the rigidity of the world order. He is a rebellious character..., although rebellion often ends in defeat" (p. 327). Such reading eloquently declares the shift of gender stratification, modification of social, civic and often even national position, the shift of emphasis from the realm of the conscious to the unconscious, overcoming the shadowy sides of the individual and so on.
In the '90s, the twentieth century, in the anticolonial works (by Yu. Andrukhovych, O. Irva-nets), the body is deprived of integrity because it belongs to the confused character, and in postcolonial works (O. Zabuzhko, M. Matios, S. Protsyuk, O. Zhupansky) corporeality appears as a construct that realises the reasons for his distortion and ridicule. The corporeality narrative becomes an object of the family's memory for the characters and the writers - as a statement of their trauma from the totalitarian regime, the collective experience of experiencing trauma and internal unrest. One of such illustrative works in
Ukrainian literature is the novel "Sweet Darusia" by M. Matios, where 1) the enkavedist's cruel abuse of the woman's body is reproduced; 2) the image of a mother cursing her young child is overemphasised; 3) a wide emotional-event range the fate of the damned mother's daughter.
The corporeal works of Ukrainian writers of the late twentieth century significantly rethink the long-standing sin problem in Ukrainian literature. Investigating the peculiarities of the motive of the Fall in the texts of M. Matios, literary critics T. Grebenyuk and O. Turgan (2008) state that the concept of sin in the prose of this writer is often used as a euphemism for sex: "Quite often in the pages prose by M. Mathios we see a situation (which has become a stamp since the "sexual revolution" of the 1960s), when the character, underestimating the role of sexual relations with a man, almost loses him. It is the conflict between the moral norms that are ingrained in the character's mind and her subconscious sexual urges that is usually most successfully exploited in 20th-century fiction (since the days of "Lady Chatterley's Lover" by D. Lawrence) ...The psychoanalytic aspect of the analysis of the Fall problem in the prose of the writer involves mainly the analysis of the conflict between the subconscious sensual urges of the character and the resistance of consciousness burdened with the norms of modern morality" (pp. 248-249). We emphasise that the problem of sin in the works of Ukrainian writers of the late 20th century is hyperbolised. For example, in Oles Ulyanenko's novel Stalin, the motive for crime and punishment is artistically realised based on Ukrainian material: the story of degradation and degeneration of the Piskarev family is recreated - the sins of a grandfather, a former enkavedist, must be redeemed by a moron grandson.
Simplicity, or even lack of review, and wide publishing opportunities for publishing literary texts (because in the 90s, there were many large and small private publishers) - are the first important factor that contributed to the diversifica-
tion of works with the "presence" of the body. Thus, the works of Yu. Vynnychuk "fill the white spot of eroticism in Ukrainian literature" (Pavlychyn, 1997, p. 233), Pokalchuk's prose collections "The Dizzy Smell of the Jungle" and "Forbidden Games" depict the most intimate intimacy, ... continuing the 'sexual revolution' in Ukrainian literature" (Holoborod'ko, 2006. p. 85), the novel "Recreation" by Yu. Andrukho-vych contains "sexual and alcoholic obscenities" (Pavlyshyn, 1997, p. 237), the micro-novel "Cellar" by V. Medved depicts the boy's first sexual experience - as an instinct and at the same time an experience of overcoming fear, the prose by Oles Ulyanenko with corpses, blood and various perversions. At the same time, there are works by, for example, E. Pashkovsky, in which the author contrasts sex with love as the closeness of the biofields of partners, denying adultery; "Totem" by S. Protsyuk, where the author emphasises "on brutal sex, adultery, physiology in order to conclude about the perishability of the flesh" (Kharchuk, 2008, p. 101), intertwining love stories with national issues, emphasising the fate of children born without love; "Island KRK" by Yu. Izdrik, in which the author argues that with the loss of physicality, "a person learns that nothing is" (Kharchuk, 2008, p. 101). These corpore-ality-ontological accents in the works of Ukrainian writers form a kind of demarcation line for distinguishing between mass and academic literature.
The existential loneliness of millennial writers and their postcolonial and post-totalitarian confusion leaves an imprint on the artistic concept of the character - fickle in beliefs, indifferent to people, lost in the world, and insincere in interpersonal relationships. In view of this, the content of the body in Ukrainian literature has changed since the end of the 20th century - it is no longer a body that carries the diseases of the century; now, it "fixes" and experiences the past. Speaking about the post-Soviet youth novel of the beginning of the 21st century, the literary critic T. Gundorova (2013) remarks on the body in
pain, the sick and infantile, and the disturbing somatic and mental processes in the characters' bodies. She rightly emphasises that "to speak of different corporeal of one body, because the body in modern culture, which has survived the experience of postmodernism, is not a holistic material object identical to itself but becomes dissociated and performative... The body as a performance is a phenomenon of the postmodern era when the idea comes that different life-streams open the body, and virtual bodies cross borders" (p. 159). The characters resort to the body's needs, neglect morals and generally accepted rules, and often commit crimes.
However, the activity of Ukrainians in social processes and the resuscitation of the authentic pages of Ukrainian history contributed to the creation of strong, strong-willed, wise, spiritually rich, and physically stable, with the rich life experience of the character in the works of M. Do-chynets, A. Kokotyukha, V. Lys, Yu. Shcherbak, V. Shklyar. A person who opposes circumstances in the characterisation of which the corporeality appears as a means of knowing the world, and the body as a container of the spirit, protesting against internal and external slavery, injustice, and shame. Since the Revolution of Dignity in 2014, this group of characters has been joined by heroes with a clear position in life, patriots with clearly defined moral and ethical principles and ideals, with intense protest energy aimed at protecting civil rights. The bodies of the lost "Heavenly Hundred", metaphysically acquiring the properties of transforming flesh into the spirit on a mental level for Ukrainians, become a symbol of indomitability, dignity and freedom in works of art and the nation's consciousness, reinforcing the culturosophical idea of a literary work. Writers' works on events in eastern Ukraine depict "corporality in Donetsk style" (Polishuk, 2016, p. 143): warrior, defender, strong in spirit, purposeful, intelligent, internally mobilised, responsible and strong-willed person who, despite a physically mutilated body (torn by bullets, exhausted by torture), full of unbearable pain for
the loss of brothers, has an irresistible desire to defend the borders of his country and to prolong life in a country without war (works by B. Hu-meniuk, E. Polozhiy and others). The arsenal of artistic means and techniques, together with effectively applied elements of expressionism, impregnations of naturalism and documentary component (because the authors of works - writers, combatants, volunteers) give works about The Anti-Terrorist Operation artistic originality. In these literary examples, corporeality performs one of the character's key characteristics, reflecting his inner world.
Conclusion
The proposed approach to the body as a text in the Ukrainian literature of the 19 - early 21st century, as a phenomenon of cultural search and philosophical interpretation of man in his relations with the world, shows the diversity of forms of artistic representation of the corporeality at diferent stages of literature. Corporeality in the Ukrainian literary work is informatively capacious and ideologically and aesthetically loaded, as well as information about the character's social status, marital status, education, and profession, making the character realistic. The semantics of the body in Ukrainian literary texts of Ukrainian writers reflects the cultural and historical realities, coordinated by the world and Ukrainian philosophical thought, and is consistent with the value orientations and aesthetic principles of the cultural era, folk traditions of laughter culture (early 19th century), world stylistic tendencies (Ukrainian literary modernism of the late 19th - early 21st century), depends on the method of socialist realism imposed by Soviet ideology (30-70s of the 20 century) and caused by political and ideological changes in society. In the works of Ukrainian writers of the 19th century, the body appears as a visual text. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, body language in the literary text has diversified; the post-totalitarian era brought post-corporeality to Uk-
rainian literature, thus often depersonalising heroes, depicting a sick body exhausted by unspoken trauma. The study of ways of representing corporeality in Ukrainian literary texts allows modern literary criticism to reach a new interdisciplinary level.
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