Oprelianska A. Mythologem “Androgyny” in Ukrainian Fairy Tale

Rooting remotely in structuralism that examined fairy tale from a personage system point of view, Gender Studies on fairy tales starts in 1970-ss and poses fundamentally new questions. Structural approach did not aim to define gender-based peculiarities or to classify personages and their specifics according to their gender. However, it was structuralism that started considering male, female, and neuter tales. Despite two last types have been on the periphery of research for a long time, the situation has changed in 1970-ss, and such researchers as Elli Köngas-Maranda, Bengt Holbek, Isabel Cardigos, Christina Bacchilega, Key Stone, and others changed the direction of Fairy Tale Studies. They focus on female characters, examine neuter tale, as well as rise a set of fundamentally new questions related to both gender representation of personage system and problematizing gender itself, gender representation and stereotypes in fairy tales. This research suggests looking at Ukrainian fairy tales through the scope of Gender Studies of Fairy Tales and combines this discourse with structural-ritual approach. In the research we highlight the category of androgyny as gender-functional category. Since fairy tale contains remnants of rituals as well as often reflects rites of passage, the research pays close attention to the category of liminality as a marker of androgyny. Liminality co-exists with sacral, and in a context of the research sacral is equated with liminal.