Means and methods of literary understanding of everyday life in the works of I. Rozdobudko and M. Gretkovska

The present article shows that as a result of historical, cultural and social changes that have aroused interest in the life and work of women, the attention of literary critics was drawn to the literary everyday life in Ukrainian and Polish modern women’s prose. Everyday life in women’s prose has become a mirror of woman’s worldview, philosophy, feelings and emotions. The significance of the study is based on the lack of the clear system of means and techniques that belong to the poetics of everyday art in literature studies. The purpose of this study is to make an attempt to systematize the means and methods of literary understanding of everyday life in the texts of I. Rozdobudko and M. Gretkovska. In the process of the research it is established that the nature of literary everyday life in the texts selected for analysis is determined by attention to the inner world of the character that is typical for women’s prose. It is noted that women’s images described in the analyzed texts completely contradict patriarchal ideas about the role of women in society and family. Such components of the everyday life of the characters as woman’s life, body and actions become the key to revealing her inner world. It is noticed that the external demonstrations of everyday life (space, time, clothing, body, reactions of the characters, etc.) become a reflection of the inner world of the characters. The following methods of modeling of everyday life in the prose of I. Rozdobudko and M. Gretkovskaya are singled out: construction of own representation of time by characters; «stretching» or «stopping» of time; laconicism in space modeling; emphasis on details; focusing on sensory sensations; close intertwining of the real with the unreal; concentration on corporeality, sensuality; attraction to the naturalism of the image; increased attention to the personal, private life of the character; autobiography; reproduction of global problems of the country or epoch through modeling of destiny of one person; fragmentary modeling of images and situations; the impact of the death of a pet on the emotional state of the character; modeling of provocative situations and images in order to encourage the reader to think, search for the truth. It is noted that writers implement these techniques within their authorial styles and ideas of novels in different ways. It is established that the authors use a wide range of artistic means: metaphors, comparisons, epithets, paradoxes, ironies, contrasting images, symbols, archetypes etc. Using a wide range of artistic means and techniques, writers construct models of everyday life of their characters in their own way. The results of the research can become the basis for a generalized theoretical description of the poetics of everyday life.

Interpreting the voice of the body in women’s writing (on the material of the drama “The vagina monologues” by Eve Ensler)

The article presents an analysis of corporeality in the structure of postmodern philosophical thought and the conceptual foundations of feminist critique (an essay by L. Irigaray). Based on several samples of the late XX century women’s writing, the article traces the problems of women authors searching and finding the voice of their body, and emphasizes the importance of accepting and comprehending the bodily forms of their nature. The main motives and authorial intentions of I. Ensler’s drama “The Vagina Monologues” are considered, the writer’s view on women’s language and speech expression of their own corporeality and sexuality is argued. Methods. The research is based on general scientific methods of synthesis, analysis, selection and systematization of material. Elements of psychoanalytic, anthropological, hermeneutic approaches are partially applied. The tools of deconstructivism and feminist critique are used. We use information from linguistics, anthropology, cultural and gender studies for interdisciplinary consideration of corporeality in women’s writing. The descriptive method allows to present the subject of corporeality in separate works of fiction. Results. It was found that the analyzed phenomena of the description of the female body in women’s writing create a projection of corporeality as a dramatized existence with its inherent characteristics: balancing between speech and silence, permissiveness and condemnation, courage and shame; search for exact language means; selection of rhetoric and stylistics peculiar to this theme; attempts to establish a verbal connection between the voice and the body, fear of losing this connection. Ukrainian women’s writing of the late XX century is also mentioned in this context, particularly when regarding the expression of the concept of “body” in thematic and ideological terms. Conclusions. Analyzing some examples of women’s writing (scholarly – an essay by L. Irigaray, and artistic – a drama by I. Ensler), we summarize that their problem-thematic direction is determined by issues of the body capable of self-narration and self-representation in public space. Some elements of postmodern symbolism of body and corporeality are decoded, o-corporeal metaphors of women’s writing related to women’s freedom of choice are explained. Women’s writing is defined as a symbolic way of telling one’s own experiences of one’s own body.