Shchehelskyy V. Game Folklore of Podillya: Regional Peculiarity and National Tradition.

The dissertation focuses on the system analysis of Podillya's folklore game in the Ukrainian national tradition. The author's definition of the"game" as a folklore category is suggested, the notion of "playing text" is specified. The symbolic images of "Dunay" and "Paradise" are analyzed as mythological established structural elements of the game that reflect early period of forming folklore consciousness of Podillya inhabitants. The playing chronology and players' gender, age, social qualification are investigated. The hierarchy of transformational processes in playing experience of inhabitants of Podillya is traced. The stable existence of the folk game in which the central personage is the result of ancient mythological concepts is proved. The text material is analyzed according to the time of playing practice, the seasonal and constant children's games that provide individual socialization and development, are distinguished. The folklore subsystem in the Ukrainian playing paradigm, in particular in Podillya inhabitants' one, - the games on the pasture - is distinguished for the first time. It is ascertained that the presence of the plot-forming playing attribute - "tsurka" (small stick), around which the tasks of the game are developing, is a characteristic peculiarity of the games on the pasture. The analyzed text material is classified according to five types of game tasks, the etymology of nominating texts of playing plots is traced.