The thesis for a candidate of Philological Sciences degree (Doctor of Philosophy) in speciality 10.01.01 «Ukrainian Literature» (014.01 ‒ Ukrainian Language and Literature) ‒ Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University of Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, Ternopil, 2021.
The essayized history of Ukrainian literature «Guarding the Nation» by Yurii Kosach in the context of national and philosophical ideas of heraldry is examined in the dissertation. His literary-critical and journalistic (ideological) essay writing in the 30s-40s of the XX century, literary-critical, culturological and journalistic essays by D. Dontsov, E. Malanyuk, Y. Lypa, and O. Olzhych are also taken into account. In particular, the general theoretical-methodological and historiographical aspects of the essay genre and aesthetic-cultural principles of Yurii Kosach’s work are outlined, the role of D. Dontsov and herald art principles in the formation of ideological-aesthetic consciousness of Yurii Kosach in the 30s is studied, the national and philosophical specifics of Kosach’s literary-critical axiology are revealed, his essayized history of Ukrainian literature «Guarding the Nation» is analyzed through the prism of essayistic principles, the role and place of the work in the Ukrainian literary process and criticism are clarified and the author’s place in the history of literary thought of the XX century is determined, the structural and compositional specificity of the work is characterized, its problems in the context of the national discourse of heraldry are outlined, the stylistic dominants of the writing are singled out.
In the first chapter it is emphasized that the journalistic essayistics of the 20s – 30s of the XX century for the first time in the history of Ukrainian humanities has a sense of genre self-sufficiency and acts as a productive and organic genre for Ukrainian literature, stimulated by literary and artistic achievements of writers between the XIX ¬ XX centuries and essayistic thinking of critics of the magazine «Ukrainian House» at the beginning of the 20th century.
The second chapter reveals that Yurii Kosach’s essays writing in the 30s of the XX century conceptually conveys all the basic historiosophical principles and positions of D. Dontsov and the heralds’. The writer interprets all mental Ukrainian complexes, historical and political problems, geocultural and civilizational contradictions in the stream of their views.
The third section focuses on the problem-conceptual specifics of the work «Guarding the Nation». The central event of Ukrainian history for the essayist is the formation of the state, and the modeling of this sacred history through the «verbal guard», that is Ukrainian writing – the most important national-spiritual act.
Key words: essay, literary essayistics, essema, heraldry, author, concept, conceptosphere, paradigm, «boundary situation», literary-critical axiology, discourse, national spirituality.
