TERMINOLOGICAL RECEPTIONS OF THANATOLOGY PROBLEMS IN UKRAINIAN LITERARY STUDIES

Abstract

The issue of thanatological research in modern Ukrainian literary studies, despite a fairly significant number of previous works, still remains insufficiently developed. This has determined the relevance of our study, the purpose of which is to analyze and systematize the issues of theoretical understanding and terminological definition of thanatological issues in the works of Ukrainian literary scholars.The tasks of our investigation are an attempt to systematize attempts at thematic definition of issues of thanatological semantics in modern Ukrainian literary studies.The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is historical-literary, historical-cultural, comparative, typological, as well as general scientific methods (synthesis, generalization, systematization, etc.).The article analyzes the main vectors of research approaches of Ukrainian literary scholars to the terminological definition and clarification of the meaning of the concept of «thanatology» and the appeal to it by Ukrainian artists.As a result of the research, it was established that: 1) thanatology as a science of death should be attributed to interdisciplinary disciplines that characterize one of the vectors of development of modern science, including literary studies; 2) in addition to the widely used term «thanatology», Ukrainian literary scholars also use other conceptual definitions of the semantics of death in literary works: vanity, funeral, burial or necrological themes, the term «martyrologist» is also widely used, associated with hagiographic literature and its later reflection in Ukrainian literature, in particular «The Shot Renaissance»;3) the corresponding motifs in literary studies of ancient Ukrainian poetry were also designated by other terms: church-religious poetry, spiritual verse, religious-philosophical poetry, lyrical poetry of a spiritual nature, etc.;4) in modern literary studies of the thanatological semantics of fiction, domestic literary scholars also use other terms, such as «funeral writing», «memorial poetry», «pathopoetics», «psychopathic motifs», «macabre images and motifs», etc.; 5) the thanatological issues of Ukrainian literature were out of the focus of attention of literary scholars almost until the end of the 20th century, although they were powerfully represented in poetic, prose and dramatic works of this period; 6) the beginning of thanatological studies in Ukrainian literary studies was laid by folkloristic works, which initiated further literary studies of the thanatological semantics of Ukrainian poetry, prose and dramatic works.