The dissertation generalizes theoretical approaches towards the genre of essay. Scholars define the essay as journalistic genre, a literary genre, a literary form transcending genre limits, a form of reflective writing, etc. The author of the thesis provides her own definition of the essay. It is a non-fiction literary genre, which combines both literary and journalistic features and has a free composition, opens an opportunity for a vivid expression of the author's individuality and contains a quick reaction to issues of great social significance.
The author of the dissertation applies theory of communication to consider genre features of literary and journalistic essay. The thesis provides a scrupulous analysis of all textual categories of the essay. Another problem considered in the study is functioning of the genre in print and digital media. As a special type of text, the essay embodies all basic semantic and structural categories, such as integrity, cohesion, divisibility into parts, ability to transmit information, prospection/retrospection, completeness, modality, and intertextuality. At the same time, the author of the dissertations proves that these text categories in the essay have their peculiarities, because they depend on conditions of communication and the author's pragmatic guidelines.
The leading nation-building discourses in the essays by the Ukrainian writers are post-colonialism and Europeanism. The writers critically reconsider the colonial heritage of the Ukrainian society and focus on the national traumas that were inherited from the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. In order to make the Ukrainians believe that they are a nation with their own language, culture and traditions, the authors of the essays use a number of anti-colonial strategies, such as self-criticism, opposing their nation to other nations, and demonization of the Other.
The discourse of Europeanism in the contemporary Ukrainian essays includes the Austro-Hungarian myth of Galicia, presented in a melancholic and nostalgic way. It concerns references to everyday life and architecture during the period of prosperity of Western Ukrainian cities when they were parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, etc. Another manifestation of the Europeanist strategy is appealing to modern European values, standards of life, etc. as a kind of national ideal, which the Ukrainians have to achieve.
A significant component of the national identity in contemporary Ukrainian essays is the discourse of ethnicity. Its constituents are language, customs, religion, and culture. The essays of the contemporary Ukrainian writers clearly trace the regional self-identification of their authors, emphasize the opposition «we» – «they» on regional and linguistic levels, and use strategies aimed at exacerbating conflicts and humiliating the Other.
