PROBLEMS OF CULTURE AND LANGUAGE IN THE NOVEL OF E. KONONENKO “RUSSIAN PLOT”

Abstract

The article offers an analysis of the figurative system of E. Kononenko’s novel "The Russian Plot" in terms of cultural and language centrism. Attention is drawn to the relevance of the work’s subject matter, which is caused by the intensity of transformations in Ukrainian society; changes in the postcolonial individual linguistic and cultural consciousness of every Ukrainian. The emphasis is placed on the fact that the modern literary image is an important source of knowledge of a person, their social culture as an environment of being. The writer’s work attracts the attention of readers and literary critics in the context of studying the artistic images of the characters of modern Ukrainian society. In the analysed work, the creation of such images is based on the motives of cultural and language centrism. The study of these problems is carried out taking into account the peculiarities of intergenerational relations within one large family that has undergone numerous transformations both at the personal, individual level and at the communicative level, at the level of changes in national and cultural consciousness. The actualisation of proper nouns in the text of the story as markers of image creation of representatives of Ukrainian and other European, as well as Anglo-American cultures, is emphasised. These are names of characters, precedent names, and titles of iconic works of art that carry out an important identificational function. In addition, the role of eloquent names of characters in creating their images is marked. Special attention is paid to the analysis of everyday and professional language practices (Ukrainian, Russian, French, German, English), which are characteristic of social life of each of the characters as representatives of a particular generation of Ukrainians.