LANGUAGE AS A PATH TO THE NATION AND A MODEL OF THE SELF-CONCEPT IN THE WORKS OF IVAN OHIIENKO AND IN THE NOVEL «MONDEGREEN» BY V. RAFIEIENKO

The article analyzes the language issue and the phenomenon of the national language in general as a way to the nation and a model of the self-concept in the works of Ivan Ohiienko and in the novel Mondegreen by V. Rafieienko. The source material for the study is the text of V. Rafieienko's novel Mondegreen and the works of Ivan Ohiienko, which outline language as a determining factor in nation-building and a tool for constructing the personality of a native speaker (“Science of Native Language Duties” 1936; “Native Language” 2010). Based on the analysis of language as a full-fledged character in the novel and as an element of national identity and self-concept in Ivan Ohiienko’s works and V. Rafieienko's novel “Mondegreen”, several main lines of how the authors understand and interpret the meaning of language have been identified. In particular, they are: 1) language as the core of the nation; 2) language as an instrument of genealogical memory and historical truth; 3) language as an episteme; 4) language as a parental responsibility, a tool for education and self-education (germ. Bildung, German tradition of self-cultivation); 5) language as a goal that requires effort; 6) language as a sphere of super responsibility of intellectuals. The article analyzes the image of the Horse's Head as a medium in Haba Habinsky's comprehension of language. It is noted how the aspect of language is revealed through the concepts of metropolis (Kyiv) and province (Donbas). An important parallel is drawn between the images of V. Rafieienko's novel and the monomyth – according to the cycle typical of a Campbellian hero. In addition, in this cycle, the hero who does not realize the program of initiation, but, on the contrary, fails it, is Sosipatra, who degrades to the level of a nayada. The author emphasizes the danger of applying to the novel by V. Rafieienko's novel, the extremely harmful concept of Russophony, which is being promoted by hostile intellectuals led by the Italian scholar Marco Puleri. The Ukrainian language in the text is sacralized, a kind of Tao chosen consciously by Haba on the way to self-discovery, to the ingrowth of itself into the soil of the centuries-old history of the Ukrainian Donbas, which ultimately becomes decisive for a potentially new, reborn Haba. However, there is no happy ending in the text. There is only a symbolic return from oblivion of the children of Habinsky's executed great-grandparents, who appear in the middle of the night on the doorstep of his house. And from that moment on, as the reader realizes, the language, history, and family memory finally find a safe haven in the irreversibility of Haba's choice of Ukrainian as the continuum of his worldview and life.