Voropaj T. The social subject's identity in postmodernism discourse.

The dissertation investigates the social subject's identity problem that is actualized by essential transformations over the world and - in specific forms - in Ukraine. Current scientific and philosophical methods and instruments to solve this problem are not quite consistent and effective. That is why a new approach is worked out in the dissertation. This approach is based on explication and conceptualization of the identity phenomenon's discursive aspect (discursive identity). The aspect is mediated by language of culture, implemented in texts, works of art, ways of their analyzes and interpretation. A conceptualization of discursive identity, proposed on this base, permits us to bring into light an interconnection between the social subject's identity and current forms of his self-realization and self-understanding in culture, especially in the fiction and metafiction. It is proved on this basis that contradiction between forms of the subject's representation in discourses of modernism and postmoder nism are connected with bringing into light both development of types of interaction between a person and society and a more complex structure of subjectivity. It is pointed out that, contrary to the widespread belief, "the death of a subject" (particularly that of the work's author) does not occur in modernist and postmodernist art really. Instead, disintegration of unity of a subject's "Self" both occurs and goes into art's self-reflection here. This disintegration process and its realization promote up-to-day understanding of character of a person's social identification "under the postmodern condition". Principal results of the dissertation deepen our knowledge about character and socio-cultural determination of the processes of contemporary social subject's identification and self-identification. Key words: social subject, identity, discourse, postmodernism, metafiction, hermeneutics.