The image of Ukraine in journalism in 20-30 years of the XX century: the national dimension

Abstract

Introduction. The study was inspired by the desire to comprehend the process of nationbuilding in Ukraine in the first decades of the twentieth century, which emerged on the basis of socio-political, historical, social and cultural factors, the identification of constructive impulses of the mentally-helpless duality of the psychology of the Ukrainian movement and the ideological exhaustion and non-viability of political doctrines that were existing at that time. The purpose of the article is to study the image of Ukraine in the journalism of Dmitry Dontsov in the nationalistic aspect. Research methods. The dominant methods of research were hermeneutics (mostly the method of national and philosophical interpretation) and post-colonialism. With the help of them the problem of the philosophy of national existence was interpreted and the phenomenon of national-centered methodology of thinking was outlined, the Dontsov’s understanding of beauty in journalism and literature has been updated. As a result of the work, it was determined that characters build a certain structure of foundations, which allows to test and study existential modes that destroy or, conversely, update, change the national coexistence. Alienation, separation, loneliness, indifference, tolerance, avoidance, humiliation are defective negative modes, which are opposed by the positive, author’s literary modes of national liberation struggle (disaster, faith, will, repentance, irony, glory, dream, earth, sun, share, hut, sea). On the basis of the practice of interpreting the modes of human existence D. Dontsov unfolds a large-scale fantasy of the crippled current existence of Ukrainians, who are guilty of it themselves. The spectacles of a terrible catastrophe, hell, apocalyptic poetics and symbolism, like a flash, multiply rapidly spiritual, and, hence, national devastation. Dontsov’s generalization of Shevchenko’s picture of the world is an exhortation to return to their own national independence, because days and nights “pass”. The threatening figures of I. Pidkova and T. Tryasyla are disappearing, and Ukraine plunges into an inevitable spiritual and historical gap. Therefore the essayist visually reproduced the existential images of Shevchenko’s universe are transmitted not only to “save” the poet – it is an impetus for the salvation of the nation. It is clear that, as if from a first glance, the sufficiently approved theme of Ukraine, which finds its brightest expression in the work of both Ukrainian and world publicists, is realized absolutely in a new way in the portfolio of Dmitry Dontsov. This topic is expressed in a new and modern way, given the need for more active involvement of D. Dontsov’s national-centric heritage in contemporary humanitarian work, in order to counteract the abusive strategies and practices of cultural imperialism and cosmopolitanism, in particular in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war.