Work

The monograph is dedicated to the complex investigation of Ivan Franko’s scientific mythological heritage. The actuality of Franko’s doctrine dedicated to mythology as «rudimentary» form of spiritual culture of humanity and «youthful» age of people formation in scientific environment of that time has been outlined. The thesis deals with the interpretation of a content of Franko’s ethnic-culturological concept, which explains the origination of myths, motifs, ethnic beliefs and notions, rituals and customs, the historical evolution of nations, genesis of pre- / historical culture, including oral and written literature. Mythopoetical imagery (explicit / implicit, verbal / nonverbal and simultaneously highly productive), that requires attentive reading, semiotic decoding and hermeneutic interpretation at various levels of individual author’s picture of the world, has been found out. Individual symbiosis with nature, based on dis / harmonious semiotic relations among the human body, spirit, mood, world perceptions and phenomena of the natural environment, is characterized as the aesthetic dominant (semantic kernel) of Ivan Franko’s prose universe. Mythopoetics of basic primary elements (earth, water, fire, air) has been comprehensively analyzed at the intersection of the subjective – objective, elapsed – over time, local – universal. This thesis emphasizes on artistic expediency of using of mythical and mythological marked images of time and space to represent landscapes of the Ukrainian land as creative elements that inspire on deep reflection about not only character’s but also author’s life values.