Shvorak I. Mythological structures in the traditional wedding ceremony of Western Volhynia

The thesis investigates the specifics of the embodiment of mythological structures in the wedding ceremony of Poturia – one of the most significant regions of Western Volhynia in terms of traditional culture. The source base includes printed publications, manuscripts and audio materials of field research of the second half of the XIX - early XXI century. Much of the analytical material was collected by the author of the dissertation during 2011–2016 and introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The research is carried out in three directions, which serve as one of the possible approaches to the study of the structure of the myth in the traditional wedding ceremony of Western Volhynia: 1) opposition of binary systems as the basis of mythological thinking; 2) the specifics of the embodiment of the opposition structure in the coding of the symbol at different levels of the rite: verbal and verbal-musical accompaniment (song), action, participants, attributes; 3) socio-psychological aspect of oppositional mythological structures. A generalized definition of the mythological structure was formulated, by which the semantic model is understood, which reflects the existence of established binary relations functioning in the symbolic space of traditional culture. The following models of mythological structures are distinguished in the wedding ceremony of Western Volhynia: sаcral / profane, own / alien, death / rebirth. Particular attention is paid to the verbal and musical accompaniment of the wedding, its prominent role in the mythoritual process: coding the symbolic content of the rite, legitimization of ritual actions, transmission of information and the corresponding psychological mood in the drama of the rite.