Tkachenko T. Ontological-Existential Basis of Ukrainian Small Prose from the Еnding 19th–20th Centuries

This thesis offers a system analysis to the Ukrainian small prose in the ontologicalexistential dimension. For the first time, investigation presents a mosaic of multi-genre and multi-style works of Ukrainian small prose at the end of the 19th–20th century, which, due to the synthesis of personal, social and human realms, forms a coherent picture of national life in literary coordinates. It comes over the centennial discourse of Ukrainian artistic literature. It reveals ontological-existential concepts in the formal and substantial unity, proves the integrity of national literature in diversity. The work introduces a large number of little-known and unknown authors into scientific circulation. The investigation analyzes the concepts of the existence of a literary work; outlines the artistic picture of the revolutionary-military conflicts of the 20th century and the continuity of the liberation struggles in the small prose; determines uncoveres features of laughing discourse in Ukrainian writing; inquires the meaning of the existential choice in the metamorphoses of the hero of Ukrainian small prose; reveales the axiological accents of self-identification and the dialectics of being in the small epic forms; sindles the intentions of the «philosophy of the heart» in the sensory reception and interpretation of the world; studies outlines the concepts of life and death in the time-spatial projection and generalizes the disclosure of the micro-and macrocosm in autobiographical narration.