Authors

Svitlana Kryvoruchko¹; Iaroslav Goloborodko²;  ¹ Institution State University of the Central West - UNICENTRO, Panama;  ² Horlivka Institute for Foreign Languages of Donbas State Pedagogical University, Україна

Discussion

Vasyl Stus (1938-1985) is a Ukrainian writer of the twentieth century. The creative search of Vasyl Stus is unfolding through the dynamics of concepts from “Unfreedom” to “Freedom” through “Danger”. The concept of “Freedom” is represented by the desire to speak the Ukrainian language, the opportunity to engage in creativity, to write poems, to have a Ukrainian ethnic identity, to have Ukrainian historical memory. The paper examines the interpretation of history in art, the use of biography as a creative material in literature, the formation of reliable historical memory of Ukrainians, the debunking of “myths”, overcoming post-colonial Ukrainian thinking, raising the issue about the consequences of ethnolinguistic nationalism. Stus’s poems reflect a protest against the system of government of the USSR. The aesthetics of the poet was formed through the prism of the concept of “Freedom”, which became a sign for the mental perception of the Ukrainian intellectual and a motive for resistance to the social system of the second half of the twentieth century, which oppressed the individual only for their involvement and belonging to Ukrainian ethnic cultural unity. Poet's search wrap around the problem of ethnolinguistic nationalism. Through the mental conflict “Ukrainian” / “Russian”, the historical memory of the Ukrainian ethnic group is revealed as an intellectual aspiration, which was influenced by the experience / burden of 300 years of history. Ethnolinguistic nationalism is a language policy strategy aimed at introducing a certain language as a “working” language on the territory of a multicultural, multilingual state, or a multicultural, multilingual organization. The Russians destroyed the Ukrainian language for many centuries. Thereby they tried to destroy the Ukrainian people through language. The escalation of the war in Ukraine in 2022-2023 is a obligate process that has been brewing for centuries. The desire of the Ukrainian people to be free, to speak their own language and to create literary examples in it, which are included in the world treasury, was preserved thanks to our best patriots-writers (V. Stus, E. Svirstyuk, M. Khvylovyi). Their existence became a sign of “Freedom”, for which they “paid” with their lives. The ethnic and cultural Ukrainian stratum is revealed through an esthetics of the Ukrainian poet Vasyl Stus, through his ethical and moral position and an aesthetic concept. Here the phenomenon of patriotism will be revealed at the level of the feeling of “own”. Conflicts and characters reveal ideas: Vasyl Stus's love for his native land is his free choice, which reveals his individual virtues and prowess. In the pursuit of ethnic freedom, Vasyl Stus is revealed as having been defeated during his life, but gaining fame and recognition after his death. Vasyl Stus makes a free choice: the development of Ukrainian literature, culture, art, and language. He is a patriot of “Ukrainian”.