Спогад та уява в оповіданні Вадима Лесича «Інтруз»

In this article, we analyze the short story "The Intruder" ("Intruz") by Vadym Lesych, a prominent Ukrainian poet and translator. The story is probably his only published prose work among those known to us (in one of the letters to the editor and publisher Yevhen Yulii Pelensky he talks about several written prose works, whose fate is unknown: "Love on Asphalt", "Dame Koro", "Story of My Heart"). "The Intruder" was written after the Second World War and published in 1948 in the journal "Arka" (reprinted in 1984 in the journal "Suchasnist’"). It portrays the lives of Ukrainian emigrants in post-war Europe, emphasizing their inner experiences while neglecting the broader social context. The article aims to explore the structural features, subtext, and artistic context of "The Intruder". To achieve this, we used primarily hermeneutic and analogical methods. The motifs of Lesych's poetry have served as clues for our analysis, including the motif of imagination as a misleading and threatening illusion. We conclude that "The Intruder" is an excellent example of psychological prose that delves into the inner worlds of the literary characters. Lesych rarely uses words that denote feelings and mood but describes them phenomenologically through bodily reactions and motions. In the center of the writer's psychological focus is a memory, which he interprets not as the reproduction of an experience but as the creation of a new reality, i.e., as an emotional construct. This memory specificity arises from the predominance of imagination as an external elementary force that replaces reality and takes over human nature, preventing us from approaching the actual situation. Lesych ironically undermines the imaginary memory by contrasting it with recollection based on inner feeling or bodily memory, which serves as a guide for life. Lesych's view of the human being as the object of the influence of internal and external elemental forces resonates with Miserabilism, an artistic movement of the mid-20th century, in part with the art of its leading representatives—Bernard Buffet, Jean Carzou, and Alberto Giacometti. These findings can serve as a basis for further research on Vadym Lesych's work and Ukrainian short prose in the 20th century.