Existential motives of ukrainian philosophical culture and its harmony with european trends

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Existential motives of ukrainian philosophical culture and its harmony with european trends

Ostapchuk G., Efimenko I.

The article have tried philosophical and literary analysis of the philosophy of existentialism, and displayed analogy between Ukrainian and European manifestations. The basic concepts of European existentialism philosophy particular absurdity of life and death J. P. Sartre, existential rebellion A. Camus, balancing between the tragic and the mundane F. Kafka. Much attention is paid to domestic existential tradition: willpower and choice L. Ukrainka (Ukranian) , alienation and pessimism M. Khvylovy, conflict society and the individual V. Pidmohylny. It is found existential, manifested in the specifics of artistic images, realized and revealed through dialectical processes characteristic Ukrainian and European existentialism, namely opposition spiritual and physical, rational and irrational, conscious and unconscious. Substantiates the legitimacy approach to Ukrainian existentialism as his philosophical direction, through its cultural and political accumulation.

Key words: existentialism, "being-towards-death", crisis of identity, alienation, absurdity, existential fear, existential revolt.

Остапчук Г.О., Єфименко І. О. Екзистенційні мотиви української філософської культури та її співзвучність з європейськими тенденціями У статті здійсненно спробу філософського та літературознавчого аналізу філософії екзистенціалізму, показано аналогію українських та європейських проявів. Розглянуто основні поняття європейської філософії екистенціоналізму, зокрема, абсурдність життя і смерті Ж.П.Сартра, екзистанційний бунт А.Камю, балансування між трагічним і буденним Ф. Кафки. Значна увага приділена вітчизняній екзистенційній традиці: вольове зусилля та вибір Л. Українки, відчуження та песимізм М.Хвильового, конфлікт суспільства і особистості В.Підмогильного. З'ясовано екзистенціальність, що проявляється у специфіці художніх образів, реалізуюється і розкривається через діалектичні процеси, характерні для європейського та українського екзистенціалізму, а саме протистояння духовного і тілесного, раціонального та ірраціонального, свідомого і підсвідомого. Вмотивовано правомірність підходу до українського екзистенціналізму, як власного філософського напрямку, через власне культурне та політичне нагромадження.

Ключові терміни: екзистенціалізм, «буття-до-смерті», криза особистості, відчуження, абсурд, екзистенційний страх, екзистенційний бунт.

Остапчук Г.А., Ефименко И.А. Экзистенциальные мотивы украинский философской культуры и ее созвучие с европейскими тенденциями В статье сделана попытка философского и литературоведческого анализа философии экзистенциализма, показано аналогию украинских и европейских проявлений. Рассмотрены основные понятия европейской философии екистенционализму, в частности, абсурдность жизни и смерти Ж.П.Сартра, екзистенциальный бунт А.Камю, балансирование между трагическим и обыденным Ф.Кафки. Значительное внимание уделено отечественной экзистенциальной традиции: волевое усилие и выбор Л. Украинки, отчуждения и пессимизм Н.Хвылевого, конфликт общества и личности В.Пидмогильного. Анализируется экзистенциальность, что проявляется в специфике художественных образов, реализуюеться и раскрывается через диалектические процессы, характерные для европейского и украинского экзистенциализма, а именно противостояние духовного и телесного, рационального и иррационального, сознательного и подсознательного. Мотивировано правомерность подхода к украинскому екзистенцинализму, как собственному философскому течению, через собственный культурный и политический опыт. existentialism philosophy alienation rebellion

Ключевые термины: экзистенциализм, «бытие-до-смерти», кризис личности, отчуждения, абсурд, экзистенциальный страх, экзистенциальный бунт.

Existentialism as a literary and philosophical trend was common in all advanced cultures in Europe of the XXI-XX century, and Ukraine was no exception from this list because the philosophical and historical foundations of Ukrainian culture can be fully called existential.

It is appropriate to ask: how Ukrainian literary and philosophical tradition were influenced by the European existentialism; or whether such effects even existed or this philosophical direction is original manifestation of national mental culture.

The main content of existentialism is extremely difficult to uncover. It is characterized by a large number of colors, trends, lack of mutual opinion depending on the direction (of the country) where the existential thought was developed. Existentialism applied to the problems of critical and crisis situations in an attempt to understand human behavior in violent, marginal situations. European History of XX century showed instability, weakness and inevitable necessity of any human being. Revelation was to understand the awareness of their own mortality and imperfection of every human being. M.Haydehher called this condition a true being, as a "being-towards-death"; т(это сокращение "что означает") being that is directed to its end. [1,337]. Man is the only creature who knows about his mortality, and this knowledge, but even more the experience of tragedy, affects the whole human being. The fear of death, fear not to save loyalty to himself, not to fulfill his (chosen by he) designation is coming from there. This existential fear is much more deeper, "more fundamental" than the fear of something specific, partily determined. It seems to a person that the surrounding world is rational, that there are general laws of the world, history and culture. But in reality, the world is absurd, strange, senseless like all human life. Being Human is a drama. A human is alone in his feelings, he is in an emptiness. In dealing with another human, he conquers the will of the other person or he obeys the other will.

The main problem of the existentialism is the conflict between the individual and society. Existentialism is repelled from the most common forms of radical disillusionment in history, leading to the interpretation of modern society as of a period of civilization crisis, the crisis of mind and humanity crisis. But existentialism does not act as a defender of the crisis. Instead, it protests against the surrender of personality to this crisis.

Existentialists believe that the catastrophic events of the recent history revealed instability, fragility not only of the individual but of every human being. To survive in this world, individuals must first of all deal with their own inner world, to evaluate their capabilities and abilities.

The predominant object of philosophical reflection in existentialism is the individual being, sense, knowledge, values that form the "living world" of personality. Living world - is not a piece of objective material world, but the world of spirituality and subjectivity. One of the main adjustment of existentialism - is a contrast between social and individual being, radical dissociation of these two areas of human being. The person is not defined by any entity, neither nature, society, nor his own human essence. Only his existence has significance. Basic adjustment of the existentialism is that existence precedes essence, so a person firstly appears in the world, acts in it, and only then determines as a person.

Existentialists were developing theories in which people can cognize or find themselves and they give us two ways of this knowledge. Out of philosophy a person can learn himself in crisis situations. These are the life-threatening aspects of risk and also war, diseases and death. But it is possible to learn with the help of philosophy. The actual philosophy identifies human being, awakens him pushing towards freedom and life, makes it possible to be free, to overcome crisis, to cognize himself, to see the real life connections and his fate.

Characterizing a person, existentialism ignores the social environment in which a person lives. According to existentialists, there are only a few specific personalities with an autonomous consciousness, which is independent from the outside world. The collective, society confront the person, condemn him to continual impersonal existence that causes fear, a sense of insecurity, hopelessness, powerlessness.

To distinguish assimilation between Ukrainian and European existentialism, it is appropriate to pay attention to the sense of historical development, to match the basic provisions of European existentialism and to consider the similarities of their display on home territory, based on the works of the representatives of both directions. An example of the European existentialism are works of F.Kafka «Process», A. Camus «The Plague», J.-P. Sartre «Nausea». Ukrainian existentialism will be presented by the works of L. Ukrainka «Iphigenia in Tavrida», «The Field of Blood», «Orgy», M. Khvylovy «I am a romance», V. Pidmohylny «The City».

European existentialism was the product of a complex and tragic XX century with its sharp contradictions and conflicts, catastrophic wars: I World War undermined the traditional moral values, faith in the "global mind" and clever sense of history; World War II was accompanied by genocide - the mass destruction of entire ethnic groups, beliefs that it is unacceptable to resign to the triumph of violence, barbarism, brutality, and it is necessary to fight against it though this fight is essentially hopeless; unrestrained technological progress, which was not only good, but also was a source of great danger. Existentialism, which designed the ideological mindset of Europeans, led it to the extreme paradox: exactly this tragic situation revealed its immensity and absoluteness of human freedom - the freedom to choose the conduct despite the force of external circumstances.

The native realities of the early twentieth century were even more difficult. Taking into concideration the catastrophe of Bolshevism, two wars, Ukrainian reality was associated with distribution of bureaucratic management and growth of relevant national and supranational forms and structures, manipulation of human behavior by political forces, trends of Soviet Standardization of people turning them into a kind of "screws ", imposing of certain stereotypes of needs, thoughts, actions, and as a result, signs of a "human crisis", "crisis of identity". The feeling of protest against these phenomena and trends, joined with a disbelief in the prospects of a social progress, established that social and psychological atmosphere in which the existentialism became popular in the circles of Ukrainian intelligentsia, so-called typical "philosophy of crisis".

Speaking about the identity and the originality of the Ukrainian existentialism, it should be noted that at the time of origin of existential thought in Ukraine at the end of XIX - early XX century, during the so-called "lost generation" Ukrainian literature and philosophical thoughts were in general ideologically banned, radically restricted (prohibition of printing in Ukrainian) and somehow were cut off from modern European literary trends, in this case from the existential direction.

It is still unclear the question of the origin and philosophy background of creativity of young Ukrainian writers of the 20's years of XX century. Relatively, S. Pavlychko notes that "... philosophizing on the abstract topic in the late 20s appeared the only way to tell the truth" [4, 78]. According to Mr. Shevchuk "... the ideas of existentialism were hovering in the air then and certain moral and social circumstances were before their forthcoming " [12.361].

Personality of L. Ukrainka is associated with an important for the philosophy of existentialism concept of volitional efforts and choices, enduring ability to self-expression - creativity as an eternal spirit and the eternal search. To act in the ontology of J.-P. Sartre means to change the shape of the world, and in order to take up the implementation of these changes it is necessary to recognize the objectivity of lack of something in their lives, to realize a certain negativity - desideratum, which appeared from the beginning as an important external factor for the origin of her poetic word. Negative experiences like pain, loss, illness often became the catalysts of her work. "Neither fate or will I have, left with only one hope ..." ("Hope") [7, c.514]. She overcomes and denies sufferings in order to make it an object of abstract contemplation, define as intolerable and turn to the tune of revolutionary action, rebellion against the circumstances. This motive according to J-P.Sartr acquires its inherent value only by setting objectives - ie through something non-existent, transcendent - so-called certain creative idea. That is why along with the sufferings of L. Ukrainka there are statements that are aimed at revitalization.

The whole beeing of this poetess is connected with social freedom. Corinthian singer Antaeus in "Orgies" understands freedom as the ability to defend the honor and dignity of his people. "... This is a miracle we are still not accustomed to that the winners are free to call our country a garbage, and to call us, until we are not in the" frame" just the waste" [8.194]. Precisely the loss of the country autonomy, its "own house" were the main ideas of Ukrainian tragedy. Forced resignation as for will of the winners as she tries to show in the philosophy of national honor and national oppression should not turn the betrayal as for trampled and oppressed people. In dramatic poem "The Field of Blood" the conflict is between Judas and Jesus. A battleground where this struggle was taking place is the human soul. On the bloody field Judah betrayal is a voluntary and joyful release from those things that are above him and cannot be reached all his life. In fact, "liberation" is a loss of freedom, loss of yourself forever. Slave obediently returned to the owner.

Lesya Ukrainka always responded to the situation of absurd as a rebellious person who denied but did not "abdicate". For example, existential choice of Iphigenia in Tavrida: (pulls the sacrificial knife out of the altar rejects coat and gets sword opposite the heart, but then lets down a sword) "No, this is not worth the descendant of Prometheus! If he had been able to go to death daringly, he should have met everything daringly too! When for the glory of the native country such a sacrifice to Artemis is required, so Iphigenia could live in that country without glory, without family, without the name - so let it Be "[7.214]. An important aspect of understanding of L. Ukrainka as an existential recusant is her attitude to death. Fear of death was understood as the fear for the lives of beloved people. As for her own death, poetess often regarded it as something desirable, as a kind of dream of peace and rest from worldly affairs. Precisely such attitude to death is a rebellion against the fear of death.

When analyzing the works of Kafka "Process", A.Kamyu "Plague" and comparing them with the works of M. Khvylovy "I am a romance," V.Pidmohylnoho "City", we can draw a parallel and conclude that indeed, at first sight, the two directions of Ukrainian and European existentialism are similar, however, taken into consideration Ukrainian mentality, it should be noted a tendency to empathy and cordocentrism, so it would be wrong to say that these directions are completely similar.

The novel "Process" by F.Kafka revealed the motive of human loneliness, the hero understands the absurdity of his life, the absurdity of the trial, but human logic can not explain it. K. sees only two executioners, carrying out the judge's decision, and realizes that he has wasted his life no matter on what, that did not bring him satisfaction. The last paragraph of the novel reveals the whole sense of absurdity: "... The man who seemed from a distance in height, to be thin and weak, impulsively leaned far forward and stretched out his hands even further. Who was that? Friend? Would he help? ... Maybe everybody wants to help? Perhaps any more arguments were forgotten? Undoubtedly, such arguments existed, and although the logic is unshakably, but against the man who wants to live even logic cannot resist. Where is the judge, whom he had never seen? Where is the High Court, where he did not get? Like a dog, - he said, as if the shame was destined to survive him "[2, 243].

A.Kamyu develops the ideas of each characteristic signs of existentialism in the novel "The Plague", where certain system or a perfect eclecticism which consists of the absurdity of life, freedom of a person, his or her choice in front of the face of death, the clash of humanity impersonal, terrible, destructive force - plague which is a kind of inevitable absolute evil, appear. Unexpected and relentless interference of plague in peaceful lives reveals the absurdity, irrationality, deception as for the eternal harmony and consistency of life. Remaining face-to- face with this senseless and relentless destructive force that brings only death and suffering of losses, the characters of the novel should define in their relation to the world and people around them: "As with all the diseases of the world ... to believe a plague that once cancels the future, all trips and disputes? They considered themselves free, but no one will ever be free until there is a disaster. The disaster is not to the measure of a man, because of that, and it is believed that a disaster - it is something unreal, it is a bad dream that will soon pass. But it is not a dream comes to an end, and from one bad dream to the other people are ending, and especially the humanists because they neglect precautions. "[3, 15-307]. At the same time, people simply deserve such "disasters" because, according to A. Kamyu, this is an example of the border situation or existential human being in which a person has the dialectical choice thus the internal decision of a person is revealed.

M. Khvylovy, following the founders of existentialism, reflects a perception on author multidimensional experience of being in its approach to a final measurement - death. Death is treated as an approximation to the higher spiritual spheres, the specific characteristics of the life. "Existential of the death" in novels of M. Khvylovy "... is used in the sense of modus, characteristics of life. It is determined in correlation with the concept of "death" and is implemented as a logical unit of measurement of human values, as a philosophical author's desire to accentuation of the absurdity of life without meaning. Death in this case is not the only decisive result of actions of a lyrical character, but also his transition to a higher spiritual level "[10, 75]. Therefore, the psychological novel of M. Khvylovy "I am the Romance" revealed the idea of loneliness, alienation and pessimism that in principle is the main characteristic of the literary trends of that time, and negativism is manifested from the very beginning of the work, indicating the inner mood of the hero "security officer": "It is dark in the city. And it is dark here ... and at the same time suddenly the image of my mother rises in front of me ... - ...

"Executions" ??? And she quietly, sadly looks at me. ... Six hundred, six thousand, six millions- darkness is on my conscience!!! - Darkness? ... Here in the quiet room, my mother is not a phantom, but some part of my own crime 'I', which I give freedom to. Here, in a remote corner on the edge of the city, I hide one end of my soul from the guillotine "[11, 230]. Thus we can say that because of his decision he killed all feelings of negative and positive characters in himself, he was not a human more, "He is a communard", thus existential motive of expressing his own "I" or its destruction relievers, the alienation of himself from the society and his "I" from himself take place.

In The creative works of these authors the main modus of existential aesthetics can be seen: the theory of Jasper of "boundary situations", concept of Berdyaev of loneliness, Sartre dialectic "I" and "Other", the interpretation of the absurdity of human existence of A.Camus. Characters are tending to understand the sence of their existence and encounter obstacles that appear as an absurd reality.

In the novel of V.Pidmohylnyy "City" the subject is disappointment in mind, but it sounds a bit remote. The object of the image in the novel is urban life, because exactly it, according to the existentialists, represents the absurdity of life. In the "City" author focuses on the perception of the world as absurd comedy, where everything around is superfluous decoration. In the novel we find the confrontation between the two plans specific to existential thoughts: crowded city and restricted space of the room of the protagonist that characterize society and the inner world of the character Stepan Radchenko, "... People deceive themselves more often than they can tell themselves the truth, because there are invisible, ... tiny factors that cause too important processes in the soul. ... It harms! Breathing is also too bad ... you think - If I do not do anything that harms, I will live longer . Think like that: to do what harms, so you can live more pleasant life. ... Life - is a broad, noisy lottery with colorful posters, placards and perfect advertising that heralds the extraordinary gains, delicately being silent that there is only one lucky ticket in thousands of empty thin tickets and it is possible to participate only once. " [ 5, 25-56]. You can clearly define that there is always conflict between the city and the main character, that reacts to the absurdity of the world and tries to overcome it. Being hostile to the city from the beginning, it is the personification of a hostile and strange, other, illogical, abnormal , for him, he rebels, trying to fight with people and the with city itself, tends to change, believes that it is he who is called to overcome the city with its absurd laws of life. During the fight the main character loses not only his friends, not only those who loved him truly, but that is the most important that he loses his own "I". In constant pursuit of the mirage of "reality" his life becomes meaningless , he loses everything he has craved so much.

The plot of the "City" of V. Pidmohylnyy is similar to the problems of the novel "The Process" of Kafka. Similarly, the main character lives in a big city, the city as a center of the absurdity of human existence, the city as a society, office and room in the house embody the inner world of the character. Kafka shows the inner feelings and play on the audience, in which K. rejects his lawsuit in constant pursuit of happiness in the arms of a woman, but inside there is always the idea that he has no fault to the community that is constantly worried about the fate of his " process. " That experience and Finding meaninglessness of existence - is the leitmotiv of both works "Process" and "City."

The novel "The Plague" of A.Kamyu can be compared with the novel "City" of V.Pidmohylnyy and novel "I'm a romance" of M. Khvylovy. A.Kamyu gives detailed metaphor of life as a plague, where everyone has to make his choice. This idea goes through the works of M. Khvylovy, V.Pidmohylnyy, each character makes his choice does not matter it is Radchenko or Josef K., the choice of fighting of Bernard Rie or breaking of paradigms and renunciation of father Panliu, decisions to liberate from being the head of "EC" (EXTRAORDINARY COMMISSION FOR COMBATING COUNTER-REVOLUTION) or adoption of Tahabat and satisfaction of existence.

J.-P. Sartre is a classic and a prominent representative of the European existentialism, he revealed the basic ideas and brought them to a new level, giving social acuity to problems of people of contemporary society. We can draw parallels with the work of Ukrainian representatives of existentialism, for example, mentioned earlier novel "City" of V.Pidmohylnyy, where a sense of madness from social reality is also clearly reflected and the parallel to the principle of self alienation from reality was drawn. Antoine Rokanten and Stepan Radchenko are similar in their inner essence, they both feel how slowly the process of change of internal mood goes, feel that the majority of cases to which they payed so much attention and hope gets them bored. However, this goal is the only justification for their existence. They are burdened with "nausea", Rokanten orders a song with the aim of overcoming the turmoil: "... I'm starting to warm up, I feel good. There is nothing special yet, just a tiny happiness in the world of Nausea: it is nestled inside a viscous puddle inside our time. What happened was that the nausea had disappeared. When the voice came into the silence, my body became solid and the nausea passed. I'm excited, my body is like a high-precision mechanism at rest time. ... And where did it all lead me? Me who loved to sit on the bank of the Tiber in Rome so much, to walk up and down the Ramblas for hundreds of times in Barselona, Me who saw the banyan turned around the temple of the Sacred Serpent near Angkor in the Basin of the Sacred Sword, I am sitting here, I exist"[6, 27-30]. Similar thoughts can be seen in novel "City". Another similarity is respect to the beloved girlfriend and suffering from separation - the actual motive of loneliness and frustration in life, invalidity of their lives, the loss of sense of existence; the idea of "living corpses" suggested by J-P.Sartr is also interesting and can be seen in works of Radchenko. This is life with bright moments of the past, not the future existence, indicating the spiritual and emotional death: "Ani gazed at me a vacant look... she says a short phrase: I'm the living corpse Now I am living surrounded by my dead passions. ... And without apparent connection, with distant view she adds: - And I must not gaze at things. I have to look, to understand what it is and to remove my eyes at once" [6, 181-182]. The main comparative theme of both works is the absurdity of existence and awareness of his "unnecessity", world of things and the natural life are hostile to human subjectivity. Immersion of a person into natural "mush", into shapeless and dead objectivity makes him or her feel nausea. Freedom of the person is manifested through the absurdity of life.

Thus, it can be noted that the modernist formations in Ukraine is original manifestation as our historical fabric enables to form such a direction as existentialism, our attempts to understand our purpose and determination became the precursor to the formation of our own definition and understanding of existential direction, we can say that European literature has played a main role in formation of the Ukrainian direction. However, this probability is much lower due to ideological context, familiarity with classical literature existential direction cannot be denied, as they began to publish many works of Ukrainian 20s of XIX century abroad, that is why we can say that some echoes of European existentialism and literature were transported in to the literature of the Ukrainian artists. This can be seen in an analysis and comparison of the works of Ukrainian classics of existentialism and bibliographic analysis of the representatives of Ukrainian modernist direction, because most of the representatives had the opportunity to travel to Europe.

So, actually there is very little difference between the two directions - European and Ukrainian but one of the most important is the experience of the soul and internal injuries, disobedience over their destiny. Existentiality into novels and short stories appears in the specifics of the images that are filled with sentiments of loneliness, hopelessness, alienation, in main, which are characteristic for both literary destinations in the corresponding philosophical filling of works implemented and disclosed through dialectical processes specific for European and Ukrainian existentialism, namely, spiritual and physical confrontation, rational and irrational confrontation, conscious and unconscious confrontation. National identity of Ukrainian existentialism is, first of all, in an artificially created absurd world in which every of the authors lived: for some of them it was their own world o fantasy, for others it was a totalitarian regime. You also need to take into account the revolutionary and post-war stories that tried to subdue or to control a person who is by nature free completely or to adapt it to artificial life in a society that is pseudo-utopia for most existentialist writers, and exactly life is the utopia. Similarly, it was in Ukrainian existentialism, which showed the absurdity of human existence in the system of a totalitarian regime. So we can say that the Ukrainian existentialism was original manifestation as a challenge to the requests of time and history of Ukraine. It can be considered that Ukrainian existentialism is its own direction not borrowed from Europe, through its cultural accumulation and the problems of works unlike European existential thoughts, which subjected to the action of fashion, that is why majority of European works are similar.

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