Motif of Death in Ukrainian-Canadian Poetry

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Motif of Death in Ukrainian-Canadian Poetry

I.S. LIASHENKO

Ukrainian State University of Science and Technologies (Dnipro, Ukraine)

Abstract

Purpose of the research is to study the originality of interpretation of death in the lyrics of Ukrainian diaspora in Canada in the context of the opposition «foreign land motherland», based on its existential development in philosophical anthropology and culture of the last two centuries. Its implementation presupposes, first of all, analysis of the forms of development and disclosure of the death motif by figurative and artistic means.

Theoretical basis. The author uses the well-founded tradition of interpreting the death motif in philosophical literature of the last centuries, i.e. non-classical and modern philosophical thought.

Originality. The present study is an attempt at systematization of the notions of death in Ukrainian poetry in Canada in the second half of the 20th century. It is based on the study of artistic texts and the worldview of Ukrainian emigrants. Appeal to the fiction of the Ukrainian Diaspora allows illustrating the originality of philosophical understanding of death in the context of the national culture.

Conclusions. Reference to Ukrainian-Canadian poetry allows expanding the space of philosophical understanding of death in the form of figurative fiction. Concretizing the character of their interpretation of the motif of death, it is necessary to focus attention on its two basic forms of manifestation: existential, associated with living abroad, and sacrificial death for the benefit of the homeland. Thus, the motif of death occupies a significant place in the lyrics of representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora. The concept of human death is closely connected with the concept of life, which is concretized through their meaningful comprehension. This is a matter of interpretation of despair and loneliness motifs, as well as the illumination of the images of a foreign land, which is one of the features of emigrant literature in general.

Keywords: human; anthropology; death; motif of sacrifice; Ukrainian-Canadian poetry

Анотація

Мета дослідження опираючись на розробку екзистенціалу смерті у філософській антропології та культурі останніх двох століть, вивчити своєрідність його тлумачення у ліриці представників української діаспори в Канаді в контексті опозиції «чужина батьківщина». Її реалізація передбачає насамперед аналіз форм розгортання та розкриття мотиву смерті образно-художніми засобами.

Теоретичний базис. Автор опирається на ґрунтовну традицію інтерпретації мотиву смерті у філософській літературі протягом кількох останніх століть, тобто на некласичну та сучасну філософську думку.

Наукова новизна. Дане дослідження є спробою систематизації уявлень про смерть в україномовній поезії Канади другої половини ХХ ст., що базується на вивченні художніх текстів та картини світу українських емігрантів. Звертання до художньої літератури української діаспори дозволяє проілюструвати своєрідність філософського осмислення смерті в контексті вітчизняної культури.

Висновки. Звертання до україномовної поезії Канади дозволяє розширити простір філософського осмислення поняття смерті в формі образно-художніх творів. Конкретизуючи характер інтерпретації ними мотиву смерті, слушно зосередити увагу на його двох основних формах прояви: екзистенційна, що пов'язана з життям на чужині, та жертовна смерть на благо батьківщини. Таким чином, у ліриці представників української діаспори мотив смерті займає вагоме місце. Поняття смерті людини тісно пов'язане з поняттям життя, що конкретизується у вигляді їх змістовного осмислення. Йдеться про інтерпретації мотивів безвиході, самотності та висвітлення образів чужина-батьківщина, що є однією із особливостей еміграційної літератури взагалі.

Ключові слова: людина; антропологія; смерть; мотив жертовності; україномовна поезія Канади.

Introduction

Today, Ukraine is experiencing a situation where the concept of death is no longer symbolic, but has become an ontological phenomenon, especially for those who defend their land, their dignity, their honour and with it their freedom in order to offer people hope for the future. And therefore the phenomenon of death, sacrifice, dignity, which finds its manifestation in war, becomes particularly important not only for Ukrainians, but also for other peoples.

Appeal to this painful topic is caused by the need to comprehend the specific perception of Ukrainians' mentality of both the motivation for noble death, and its inevitability for an individual. This space is very well reflected in the poetry of Ukrainian diaspora in Canada in the second half of the twentieth century.

For many decades, artistic creativity has undoubtedly helped intellectuals in exile to adapt to new conditions of life in a foreign land, as well as been a means of establishing ties with the home country and preserving national identity. One of the most important components of this work is an intense reflection on the problematic of life and death, which is quite common in both philosophical and fiction literature. This interest is quite logical, as death is the logical conclusion of a person's life journey. «Along with the traditional interest in many other images, the category of death will always remain relevant for any writer, at least because of its familiar everydayness and, unfortunately, inevitability» (transl. by I. L.) (Maievskyi, 2010, p. 124). It is in this context where we can trace the philosophical meaning of death as the final stage of life.

Human existence and death as its consummation cannot be grasped with exact definitions, they can be felt and described in the form of appeal to figurative and artistic means, i.e. fiction, in particular poetry, with the help of metaphors, epithets and other means. In other words, they are difficult to grasp and comprehend in philosophy due to the lack of logical-conceptual philosophical thinking, because the very essence of the existential of death is blurred, multifaceted and uncertain for it. This is one of the reasons for turning to the works of Ukrainian diaspora artists.

Understanding the phenomenon of death in philosophical anthropology as one of its key concepts includes several levels, namely cultural and philosophical. A whole number of philosophical and religious schools gave their interpretation and understanding of death, touched on the topic of death as an existential of human existence, because this phenomenon does not bypass anyone and therefore thoughts about the inevitability of death as a form of completion of human existence always face indifference to this problem. Philippe Aries (1992) put forward the theory of several stages in human perception of death: 1. death is regarded as natural; 2. society is ashamed of death and pretends that it does not exist; 3. it is handed over to doctors and funeral directors; 4. there is a process of humanization of death.

In the history of mankind the comprehension of the phenomenon of death has been experienced in different ways. In ancient times, people found in themselves the strength to resist the threat of physical destruction, learned to overcome the horror of non-existence by concentration of spirit, efforts of thought, nurtured contempt for death. For example, in Plato's works, death does not concern the soul, but only the body. In Buddhism and Hinduism, death was understood as a common phenomenon, an endless cycle of rebirths, the transmigration of souls. In Christianity death liberates man from sin and prepares a new future for him. In the «philosophy of life» of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, death acts as a reproduction of the creative energy of man, as a fusion with the irrational basis of existence. In the existentialism of Camus and Sartre, death is a desacralization of existence, the concept of death is not connected with real human life. In particular, Camus said that man did not have the experience of death, but the experience of the death of others. Significant difficulties in comprehending death relate to its uniqueness and the impossibility of describing it through logical-conceptual thinking.

The idea of death is different not only in terms of philosophical or religious teachings, but also different in each individual, because it is unique in each moment. Understanding the nature of death is influenced by many factors, such as belonging to a people, confession, religion, life experience, and so on.

The indicated phenomenon concerns more often people connected with art because they cannot imagine their life without reflecting on the tragic nature of the moment of their life as well as on the form of its end. It is through this category that they try to see the true meaning of life. «The motif of death is realized in different ways in the artistic manifestation of each artist, being reproduced in the form that is inherent in the worldview system of the author» (transl. by I. L.) (Talabirchuk, 2018, p. 313). And since artistic creativity, primarily poetry, embodies the author's own perceptions and heightened experience, it can be argued that the motif of death, to which artists turn in poetry, is also an embodiment of the author's personal position. In this context there is no objection to the thesis that it is expedient to refer to reflections on death not only in science-oriented philosophy, but also in culture and poetry while studying the motif of death.

Purpose.

The purpose of the research is to study the originality of interpretation of death in the lyrics of Ukrainian diaspora in Canada in the context of the opposition «foreign land motherland», based on its existential development in philosophical anthropology and culture of the last two centuries. Its implementation presupposes, first of all, analysis of the forms of development and disclosure of the death motif by figurative and artistic means.

Understanding of the phenomenon of death poses a number of difficult questions for philosophy, connected with comprehension of the relation between life and death: What is death? Is it the end of life, after which comes nothingness or, on the contrary, is death the source of life meaning? Does it have the capacity to give meaning to life? Is it, on the contrary, the opposite of any life meaning? Substantive clarification of the above questions in the framework of this article involves reference to existing developments, which is a prerequisite for the author's coverage of the peculiarity of interpretation of the motif of death in the literary works of Ukrainian poets of Canada.

Statement of basic materials

A striking manifestation of the close connection between life and death is the way in which the lyricists of the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada interpret the motif of sacrificial death for the sake of the homeland. It is connected with the motif of struggle for the freedom of Ukraine and its people, so such a death is treated as heroic, carrying an existential dimension. Thus, in the poetry of Yar Slavutych (1998), the motif of the struggle for an ideal homeland is combined with the motif of revenge on its oppressors: «The truth will come. Redoubtable revenge / Will find its goal. As clear rainbow, / The Will will rise, angry and simple» (transl. by I. L.) (p. 80). A symbol of struggle in Yar Slavutych's lyrics are images of a «double-edged sword framed by a trident», battle flags as the embodiment of freedom and truth. It is fundamentally important for us that the poet identifies the concept of homeland and life as the primordial of human existence, which is the existential boundary. It is equally important that the image of trident as an emblem of Ukraine and the motifs of freedom and truth as the foundations of statehood correlate with the motif of sacrifice as one of the conditions for achieving the desired great goal. It is about death in the name of the homeland: «Death in the name of life», which gives deep meaning to existence. This interpretation of death correlates with the doctrine of L. Feuerbach (1955a, 1955b) that death is not evil, but on the contrary, death forces a person to use life capital wisely.

Substantially similar motifs are present in V. Vorsklo's lyrics. The poetess interprets the ability to fight as a mental trait of Ukrainians, which determines their struggle for independence and freedom of the people as «service» to the great cause. This thesis is developed by her in a number of works, in particular in the poem «It is not scary to die for freedom...»: «It is not scary to die for freedom / Without tears, reproaches, remorse, / For someone must live for the people, / To defend its life» (transl. by I. L.) (Vorsklo, 1967, p. 36). The poetess connects the motif of struggle with the motifs of sacrifice and Prometheism as signs of passion, reminiscent of the thoughts of F. Nietzsche. The human spirit can go against the instincts of self-preservation, for the sake of the whole as transcendent. A common point in the position of poets is the view that it is necessary to change not so much the environment in which a person lives, but themselves.

Analysing the specifics of the way of interpreting the fear of death in the lyrics of most Ukrainian poets, it is difficult not to notice meaningful parallels with the motives of the ancient Stoics. This common motif is also observed in the ancient peoples and traditional religions of the East. This point is especially evident in the teachings of Buddhists about the instantaneity of life as a change of seasons. The same association can be found in the poetry of I. Temertei, where the end of life reminds us of autumn as the season, and the poet correlates winter with life in a foreign land. The opposition past-present is projected into the future, extrapolated to death and life after death. M. Yaremkovych's (2006) opinion about this is very accurate, as he wrote that the poet «deliberately chooses such spatial-temporal parameters of the hero's being, which help clearly outline the contrast between the two worlds in which he exists» (transl. by I. L.) (p. 264). Moreover, in our opinion, the peculiarity of I. Temertei's (2004) poetry is the complete merging of time and space into a single whole, as, for example, in one of his poems: «Youth is eternal intoxication, / Old age is sober and dull. / Youth is foolish and cruel, / Old age is wise and fearful...» (transl. by I. L.) (p. 384). In other case, the lyrical hero's youth correlates with the image of Ukraine, with which his young years are associated: «We are young. Happiness. Sunshine. Steppe» (transl. by I. L.) (Temertei, 2004, p. 409). In the organic union of happiness with the Sun, the Steppe and the Earth there is a deep human feeling the first love, the first kiss, fascination with the nature of the native land and life in general. His old age correlates with the image of the «second», new homeland Canada. The expression of the feeling of death in a foreign land as an inevitability gives a tragic pathos to the expression of the hero's condition. Fatalistic notes of presentiment and the end of life link his work with the feelings of Stoics' life.

These associations are the key to understanding Yar Slavutych's collection «Prairie Conquerors», for which the motif of imminent death is vividly reflected through winter as a season in a foreign land. Y. Slavutych aptly reproduces the landscape of the cold land, conceptualising such details-signs as «withered distance» and «full of longing». His characterisation of the Canadian north is almost devoid of colour. Images of leafless trees, replete crows and howling winds direct the perception of dark, cold colours. And winter images of non-melted snow, frosty «paleness», blue abyss, polar deserts associatively point to white, which, at first glance, contrasts with black. But their combination focuses on a single motif coldness, death: «The white distance is like a coffin. / The dead-wood stands in crosses» (transl. by I. L.) (Slavutych, 1998, p. 214). The extremely long polar night is associated in the mind of the lyrical hero with the destruction of nature, this content is actualised through the sights of the coffin and the crosses. The technique of the black and white contrast in the cycle of poems «Northern Lights» determines the development of motifs of disharmony and ominousness, but also the lyrical hero's fascination with the phenomenon of Aurora Borealis: «Oh, how I love to admire you, / Sudden twinkles of the night sky!» The lyrical hero considers the northern lights a secret sign of God that «is heralding joy» (Slavutych, 1998, p. 219). However, the reader is left to speculate on his own: whether this joy is connected with the continuation of life or with a quiet life after death.

In the process of studying the originality of interpretation of the phenomenon of death in the poetry of Ukrainian emigrants, it is appropriate to draw attention to the forms of manifestation of Christian images. As we know, in the Christian worldview, death is inextricably linked with the concept of paradise, where the soul of the deceased can find peace. Representative is the image of the soul's destiny in L. Korovnyk's (2003) poem «Immortal Singing», where he proclaims: «The soul knows the way to God's paradise» (p. 24). The lyrical hero of this poem is not able to live in his homeland in the earthly paradise, but his soul seeks to return to it during his life no less than to paradise in heaven after death. L. Korovnyk's lyrics are mostly of religious content, he departs from earthly realities more often than other poets. That is why, in his works, the heavens come to the fore a dream paradise for the soul. In the poem «Awaken Your Soul,» for example, the poet expresses the goal of the believer: «O friend, awaken your soul! / Say, 'I must go / To where Christ is, to the top... / To the sinless homeland of heaven» (Korovnyk, 2003, p. 128). The image of heaven is a code of Christian paradise, where the soul of a righteous man goes after death. Against this background, spiritual life is opposed to bodily life, where the first is more important. The lyrical hero, who correlates with the image of a preacher, calls on the reader to find his spiritual fatherland. Ukrainian scientist of Canada V. Polkovskyi (2003) on this view of L. Korovnyk notes: «The poet's poems are not primitively didactic, although an element of instructiveness is present in them. His efforts are to help people with advice, experience, encouragement» (transl. by I. L.) (p. 9). One can also trace the Socratic version of life in anticipation of death as a conscious guide to its dignified course and completion. But at the same time death gives a great advantage, because death organizes human life, provides the basis for the search for meaning. Death does not pose a danger to the human being, but on the contrary, it expands the spectrum of possibilities of life for others man must live as if eternity awaits him ahead. These Christian motifs are historically and substantively closely linked to Stoicism.

The Stoic concept is perhaps most fully revealed in the lyrics of B. Oleksandriv, which is predominantly defined by scholars as tragic and existential. A well-known diaspora literary scholar Y. Stefanyk (Y. Klynovyi) stated: «.in many of his poems Oleksandriv returns again and again to the doom of man, to his sad end death is the theme of many famous poems, on which, in our opinion, rests (what an irony!) the poet's immortality in our literature» (transl. by І.L.) (Stefanyk, 1980). death ukrainian diaspora lyrics

Human mortality and the motif of death above all are clearly central in B. Oleksandriv's collection «Kolokrug». The lyrical hero seems to be in a constant struggle with it. The image of death is conveyed through a number of epithets, such as «cruel», «bony», «fierce», «toothless», «dark abyss», etc. It is inevitable for every man: «I know: death abyss can not be bypassed anywhere» (transl. by І.L.) (Oleksandriv, 1972, p. 27). The doom of death is embedded in the very birth of man. Here it is difficult not to see a meaningful parallel to the teachings of S. Kierkegaard, who believed that man is doomed to death and A. Schopenhauer's thesis that the shadow of death lies on human life (Blikhar, Kozlovets, Horokhova, V. V. Fedorenko, & V. O. Fedorenko, 2020). The interpretation of Y. Stefanyk, who considers the existential mood of B. Oleksandriv to be dominant in his work, is convincing. He notes: «What Oleksandriv's critics forget is that he, by the nature of his soul, was a tragedian, looked at life «sub specie aeternitatis», felt acutely, like Osmachka and Stefanyk, human involvement» (Stefanyk, 1980). The poet believed that the main thing for a person is to live life with dignity, feeling it in the heart, doing good deeds. Then death will be dignified, and the person will live in the memory of others: «But embodying the worthy life in life, / You will not die you will return on the trail!» (transl. by I. L.) (Oleksandriv, 1972, p. 26).

It is this collection that deserves particular attention in the process of conceptualizing the theme of death as meaningfully interwoven with one's life. It is difficult to disagree with those literary critics who see this approach as traditional for Ukrainian literature (as well as for the Ukrainian mentality in general). An interesting fact is that in «Kolokrug» B. Oleksandriv (1972) predicted his own death: it contains such, as if prophetic, lines: «There will be December, and fog, and snow, / And forever, forever lonely» (transl. by I. L.) (p. 66). It was in December, in bad weather conditions, that the poet tragically died. It can be argued that in the cited poem by А. Oleksandriv physical death is perceived as its future, which is one of the factors actualizing the problem of the meaning of life and highlighting the basic human values.

A particularly important point in the actualization of the problem of the meaning of life is the situation of hopelessness and the impossibility to return to the past and the state of mental equilibrium, which is associated with a state of existential stillness and dreamlike pleasure due to the memories of the distant fatherland. For example, in I. Temerthei's lyrics, the lyrical hero lives «to fall asleep as soon as possible, to die...». At the subconscious level, the opposition of homeland foreign land appears as the antithesis of life death. It should be noted that the image of death in the works of Temertei is one of the pervasive ones. This is primarily due to the poet's age: he began writing poetry at the age of seventy-nine, after the loss of his wife. Therefore, the motif of death in I. Temertei's works first of all appears as an ontological phenomenon, inevitable for old age. In revealing its essence, the image of trees as a mythologem of the tree of death is originally rethought: In a foreign land, they are a hint of death: «.Who knows / maybe somewhere / a tree / for my coffin is already cut down» (transl. by I. L.) (Temertei, 2004, p. 393). The image of the coffin in this poetry is projected into the future, although it also emerges in the memories of the past, when the trials of life («hunger-cold», battles, «storms») formed the character of the lyrical hero and helped to outline the key values of his personality.

As it turns out, the motif of the lyrical hero's aspiration to seize his native land, at least with his soul, is central in I. Temertei's (2004) poetry: «But there is no joy in mere memories» (transl. by I. L.) (p. 408), he states. And since the author finds the link between life and death indisputable, for his lyrical hero the return home is associated with the desire to die where he was born: «Abroad / I wish only one thing: / At least to die in Ukraine, / If it is impossible to live there» (transl. by I. L.) (Temertei, 2004, p. 47). The tone of despair and fading hope provide the tragic pathos of the poetry. Associatively there is a motif of the desired spatial cyclicity of life: to die where one was born. The motif of death in a foreign land is keenly felt, as the lyrical hero, like I. Temertei himself, realises that after death he will be buried in a foreign land.

Similarly, for the lyrical hero in Kedr's (1983) poem «You Alone!» death in a foreign land is interpreted as the only possible means of finding comfort for the soul: «There is no comfort for a pilgrim! / And I know: you alone will embrace, death, / My hungry and aching heart» (transl. by І.L.) (p. 147). The Pilgrim image underscores the difficult fate of the emigrant, whose heart is exhausted from his long stay abroad. The death of the elder brother is interpreted by the author as a dream about the homeland, defined as the «the eternal sleep». The emigrant's soul is compared to a bird without a nest the homeland and death is a means to expel suffering. In this case, one cannot ignore Nietzsche's doctrine that only death allows one to experience true freedom, as the modern philosopher writes (Blikhar, Kozlovets, Horokhova, V. V. Fedorenko, & V. O. Fedorenko, 2020). The lyrical hero of Dan Mur's (1973) poems is not consoled, but even frightened by the thought of death in a foreign land: «It is rushing sadly in the gloom: / You will die, you will die in a foreign land» (p. 31). The thought of death in a foreign land leads to a sense of hopelessness, which ensures the tragic pathos of the poem. The lyrical hero of Kedr's (1983) poem «Galicia» aspires if not to die, then at least to be buried in his homeland: «My orphan and homeless bones / will rest there, forgetting betrayal and lie» (transl. by I. L.) (p. 147). The epithets «orphan» and «homeless» aggravate the lyrical hero's feeling of loneliness and the sense of loss of his blood relatives and friends that he knew in his childhood. In this context death becomes not only the end of physical life, but also a peculiar denouement of the inner drama of the soul.

The lyricism of the poet O. Zuievskyi is imbued with original symbolism, containing many original images. Thus, death in a foreign land is metaphorically compared to an image of a «clubfooted dog» which faded away from home «like a wax fire» (Kazakova, 2007, p. 24). The image of the dog for the author appears as a harbinger of death. The tragedy of the situation is emphasised by an expressive detail a dog crying «for the last day», bridging the gap to the folk belief that a dog howls before the death of its dear man. From the perspective of the last day, confession and recollection of life are developed, which associatively directs to the religious aspect of understanding human life. The aural image of animal howl as messenger of evil is also connected with images of predatory animals, in particular wolf, which we have in S. Hurko's (n.d.) poetry: «In the wilds of the heart the wolf howls, / Hungry for friendly sacrificial love» (transl. by I. L.). The soul of the lyrical heroine is compared to a dense forest, and the wolf's howl is a marker of the motif of homesickness, despair and hopelessness. The comparison of the images of dog by O. Zuievskyi and wolf by S. Hurko reveals the orientation of the way of interpretation of human life and death toward the mythological content of the images of domestic and predatory animals.

It is essential for us that another «hypostasis» of death in the works of Ukrainian poets of Canada is a socio-historical aspect. It is about death of starvation, inspired by the motifs of the past tough times. Unlike previous examples, where death becomes the ultimate foreseeable point of a person's life, death of starvation is the embodiment of the threat of death for the entire nation. It is worth noting that it was thanks to Ukrainian emigrants that the world learned about the Great Famine tragedy of 1932-33, so this fact could not but appear in the emigration literature, given those events, most authors have personally experienced this tragedy, and witnessed the deaths of their relatives and fellow villagers. Thus, in the cycle of poems «1932-1933» by O. Hay-Holowko (1998) the problem of concealing the tragedy of Holodomor before the world is accentuated: «And news about that terrible death did not reach the world» (transl. by I. L.) (p. 75). The basis of the image of a terrible death is a general mention of the fact of death on the scale of the entire Ukrainian village.

The tragedy of the Holodomor is perhaps most deeply revealed in Smotrych's poetry collection «1933». All the poems in the collection contain a personified image of death: «In the village, only death walks silently / and peeps into all houses, / a villain» (Smotrych, 1975, p. 14). The poet emphasises the tragic nature of the death of the innocent, using the sound imagery of silence, the funeral chorale, the howl of the dog, and the scream of the living by the coffin. Among the dominant images that deepen the tragic expression in the poetry are those of night and winter. Associatively, imagination draws a picture of existential fear of the death of starvation. Developing the theme of famine O. Smotrych in his poetry actualizes the village-city opposition. The village appears as a space where death reigns. While, the city is «another» dream world, where peasants seek to get to avoid starvation. O. Smotrych (1975) gives the village-city opposition an emotional colouring through the images of their inhabitants. In the interpretation of the city as a hostile world, the image of «pot-bellied and robust» katsaps is actualized. Antithetically, in some poems, villagers are depicted through the prism of proletarian consciousness as «kulaks» (Nakashydze, 2016, p. 127). In the poem «She Was Lying in Kharkiv...» on behalf of the inhabitants of the city, the following description of the peasant woman who died of hunger was given: 'Oh, probably the woman of a dispossessed / kulak, who, as you see, wanted to eat! (Smotrych, 1975, p. 17). Alliteration of sounds [r], [k] and hisses gives the poem a sarcastic intonation, which emphasises the cruelty and hostility towards the people doomed to death. The motif of loss of spirituality is associatively manifests itself, which finds continuation in the following poems by O. Smotrych.

The religious context of interpreting the phenomenon of death is of paramount importance to us. The Holodomor victims here are associated with the image of martyrs for the faith. Such an interpretation is present in B. Mazepa's (1976) poem «Mysticism», where the fate of the Ukrainian people is compared with the fate of Jesus Christ: «In his thirty-third / They killed God, / And in the thirty-third / They killed my people» (transl. by I. L.) (p. 15). In connection with the development of the theme of the murder of God an associative reference is made to a thesis from Nietzsche's teachings on the death of God, but a comprehension of this parallel goes beyond the scope of this study. B. Mazepa's poetry developed the idea of martyrdom, self-sacrifice, correlated to the number thirty-three, on the one hand, as a symbol of the age of the earthly life of Jesus Christ, on the other, as a hint of the spring of 1933 as the apogee of the tragedy. The poet's appeal to a generalized image of the people is an attempt to show the enormity of the tragedy of the Holodomor. In this context, death is the key event that deranges the world of everyday life of the entire people.

Originality

The present study is an attempt at systematization of the notions of death in Ukrainian poetry in Canada in the second half of the 20th century. It is based on the study of artistic texts and the worldview of Ukrainian emigrants. Appeal to the fiction of the Ukrainian Diaspora allows illustrating the originality of philosophical understanding of death in the context of the national culture.

Conclusions

Reference to Ukrainian-Canadian poetry allows expanding the space of philosophical understanding of death in the form of figurative fiction. Concretizing the character of their interpretation of the motif of death, it is necessary to focus attention on its two basic forms of manifestation: existential, associated with living abroad, and sacrificial death for the benefit of the homeland. Thus, the motif of death occupies a significant place in the lyrics of representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora. The concept of human death is closely connected with the concept of life, which is concretized through their meaningful comprehension. This is a matter of interpretation of despair and loneliness motifs, as well as the illumination of the images of a foreign land, which is one of the features of emigrant literature in general.

References

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