Dolhusheva O. Typology of the Comic in Fiction by I.S. Nechui-Levytskyi and Mark Twain.

The suggested dissertation is the first attempt in Ukrainian and American literature study to make a comparative assessment of fiction by Ivan Nechui-Levytskyi and Mark Twain. Hence, the significance of our theme lies in taking a new approach to interpretation of the outstanding writers' creativity. Their literary heritage has been widely analyzed separately by native and foreign scholars while the typological comparison promotes deeper understanding of the fiction world of the classics. Thus the paper aims at tracing different and analogous phenomena of the comic, aesthetic, cultural and spiritual aspects of Ukrainian and American mentality - as they are reflected in the writings of the authors. To achieve the target stated, the author takes on the following tasks: reveals the main trends in the development of the comic concept in classic and modern Ukrainian, American and West-European aesthetics and poetics; defines those that influenced comic and humorous strategies in the fiction of both writers;singles out the literary typology of the comic with the two authors in the parameters of the "trickster", the "simpleton" and the "mask"; unfolds the original quality of the comic in the trope of a "quarrel"; discovers stylistic peculiarities and narrative techniques of the comic in literary works by Ivan Nechui-Levytskyi and Mark Twain. Varied dialectical interpretation of the literary-aesthetic category of the comic and its function in fiction texts constitutes the methodological background of the thesis. The investigation is based on the general theoretical foundation of Ukrainian and foreign comparative literature study, criticism, as well as the works dedicated to the literary activity of Ivan Nechui-Levytskyi and Mark Twain. Among the main literary approaches are archetypal and narratological criticisms, cultural, historical and typological methods. In the paper the typology of a "simpleton" as the modified trickster archetype is proposed (a "simpleton-swindler", a "simpleton-jokester", a "simpleton-victim", a "simpleton-dandy" are pointed out). The dissertant's attention is focused on the original narratology, common and different motives and images within this comic paradigm. It is also concluded that the "mask" phenomenon and the "mask" technique of Mark Twain is essentially contrasted to the "point-of-view" concept of Ivan Levytskyi. The latter presupposes definite autonomy of the literary character with the primary stress on the subjectivity of the "point of view" and its aesthetic self-sufficiency. In the analysis of the comic "quarrel" implication, based on modern conflict study, the universal and national cultural and philosophical basics are revealed in land, family, neighbors', religious "quarrels" and the function of humor and satire is studied. While investigating the imagery of a "quarrel" the trope theory of M. Black is used. In the course of the analysis the author arrives at the conclusion that there exists explicit cultural and aesthetic similarity (non-similarity) in the writers' artisticvisions.