Fiction Texts by Oleksandr Dovzhenko as a Source of Part 2 of the Dictionary «Eternal Words of Ukrainian Culture»

Author

Mekh Nataliia

a Doctor of Philology, a professor, a head of the Screen, Stage Arts and Culturology Department of M. Rylskyi Institute of Art Studies, Folkloristics and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine).

ORCID ID:http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5846-505X

Fiction Texts by Oleksandr Dovzhenko as a Source of Part 2 of the Dictionary «Eternal Words of Ukrainian Culture»

Abstract

The proposed study is an attempt to understand the literary texts of the iconic figure of Ukrainian culture, Oleksandr Dovzhenko, as an important source of the second part of the Dictionary “Eternal Words of Ukrainian Culture”. The lexicon, as a fragment of the national cultural strategy in the conditions of information aggression, is the author’s linguo-cultural reception of the “being” of basic concepts in the lexicographic and textual dimension (dictionary and textual implementation). It belongs to the author’s dictionaries built on the principle of “from idea to word”. As is known, among this group of lexicons there are no two similar ones, that is, those whose internal structure would be the same.

The Dictionary “Eternal Words of Ukrainian Culture” contains particularly important, most common lexical units, cross-cutting concepts of Ukrainian culture. Our lexicon, like any dictionary, is the result of a subjective selection of units.

The publication is arranged both by meaning and alphabetically. The dictionary has three main sections: “LOGOSVIT”, “MICROSVIT” and “MACROSVIT”, within which dictionary articles are placed alphabetically. The “MACROSVIT” section is divided into subsections “NATURE” and “SOCIETY”.

The planned publication acquires particular importance during the Russian-Ukrainian war and in the process of restoring Ukraine. The dictionary gives an awareness of the unique and peculiar place of our state in European history, culture, and in the genesis of human civilization as a whole. After all, Ukraine has something to offer other peoples and countries in the modern time frame. The motives and values that drive the Ukrainian people in their indomitable resistance to the enemy, courage, freedom and will – are engrained in our genetic memory. Sociocultural meanings and axiological dominants that illustrate the spiritual roots of Ukrainianness – all this is demonstrated to us by the creative heritage of iconic figures from different time periods of national culture.

We are convinced that it is difficult to overestimate the role of cultural products of past centuries, as well as the role of outstanding personalities, iconic historical and cultural figures, such as Oleksandr Dovzhenko. Knowing the views and beliefs of recognized pillars of Ukrainian culture, taking into account the conditions in which they had to live and create, is always a guarantee of moral growth and self-improvement. In the conditions of the Ukrainian people’s confrontation with an existential threat, the basis of which is artificially laid and spread precisely the denial of all its historical, sociocultural and even spiritual dominants, the establishment of such approaches, views and guidelines is the only way to preserve the people and the state itself.

The author’s lexicon “Eternal Words of Ukrainian Culture” demonstrates the practical implementation of the connection between the scientific and educational planes of life in modern society. The educational sphere, especially during the Russian-Ukrainian war, requires lexicographic works of a new generation – peculiar culturological digests, ideographic lexicons, author’s dictionaries, which form an idea of the history of the literary language and its styles as phenomena that are closely related to the history and philosophy of culture and the development of national consciousness. This is extremely necessary for the upbringing of the younger generation of Ukrainians, who must know the history and culture of their native land, cherish and preserve it, continuing the work of their glorious ancestors.

Keywords

Ukrainian culture, literary texts, film story, Oleksandr Dovzhenko, value orientations, author’s dictionary.

References

1. DOVZHENKO, Oleksandr. Enchanted Desna: Diary, Film Story, Short Story. Kharkiv: Folio, 2017, 601 pp. [in Ukrainian].
2. MEKH, Nataliia. The Ethos of the Ukrainian People: Value Dominants of the Ukrainian Cultural Space. Kyiv, 2022, 187 pp. [in Ukrainian].
3. MEKH, Nataliia. Eternal Words of Ukrainian Culture. Dictionary in the History of Ukrainian Literary Language of the Late-18th– Early-21st Centuries: Basic Concepts. Kyiv, 2020, 472 pp. [in Ukrainian].
4. OHIIENKO, Ivan. Ukrainian Culture. A Brief History of the Cultural Life of the Ukrainian People. Reprint reproduction of the 1918 edition. Kyiv: Abrys, 1991, 272 pp. [in Ukrainian].
5. SKOVORODA, Hryhorii. Complete Collected Works: In Two Volumes. Kyiv: Scientific Thought, 1973, vol. 1, 532 pp. [in Ukrainian].
6. SHYNKARUK, Volodymyr, editorial board’s chairperson. Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary. Kyiv: Abrys, 2002, 742 pp. [in Ukrainian].
7. Chronicle-2000: Ukraine: Philosophical Heritage of the Centuries. Kyiv: Ukrainian Writer, 2000, iss. 39–40, part 2, 800 pp. [in Ukrainian].