Oriental Motives in Contemporary Ukrainian Literature: Identity and Ideology

The work is devoted to the study of the correlation between the motives, images, symbols, stereotypes and clichés existing in modern Ukrainian literature, which outline the Eastern philosophical tradition, and the formation and transformation of identity at different levels and types. The consideration is carried out in the context of the emergence of the latest Ukrainian myth as a basis for national ideology. The purpose of the research is to outline the paradoxical nature of the general reception and individual explications of oriental motifs in modern Ukrainian literature on the occasion of those segments that can be defined through the predications of genre or mass. The article outlines the peculiarities of the reflection of oriental motifs in modern Ukrainian literature related to the dominance of the aesthetic and philosophical influences of the paradigm of postmodernism in the national tradition during the last decades. It also notes the connection between the reception of oriental motifs in Ukrainian modern literature and the politicization of modern public discourse on the occasion of the meaning-making East-West dichotomy. Political and ideological contexts of literary discourse and speech practices acquire signs of ambivalence and function as symbolic constructions. The dual nature of the reception of the image and philosophy of the East in the Ukrainian literary tradition and mass consciousness of both the metaphysical East and the geopolitical East has been clarified. The direction of transformation of oriental motives and images in the mass consciousness and literary usus in the context of finding the identity of different types and levels of generality in Ukrainian society and culture is also recorded. The liminal type of culture correlates with a divided society, and as a result the rational-educational interpretation of the image of the East as the antithesis of the West interacts with the postmodern fusion and mutual determination of East and West.