The thesis, on the basis of psycho-poetic methodology, theoretically substantiates and practically applies psychologically oriented literary technologies, in particular the classical Jungian approach to the definition of archetypes and comprehension of the psychostructure of the personality with the involvement of elements of S. Freud's psychoanalysis. The article analyzes the specifics of the artistic embodiment of the archetypes of the collective unconscious in the prose of Maria Matios (Great Mother, Wise Old Man, Sacred Marriage, Divine Child, Self), the structural substances of the individual psychoworld (Ego, Shadow, Persona, Anima/Animus), the writer's worldview and orientation.
The research methods were chosen in accordance with the breadth of the topic, which involves a combination of general scientific, psychological, and literary paradigms. The basis of the practical research is a psycho-poetic approach in combination with scientific and psychological ones, selected according to the principle of G. Allport's systematic eclecticism. This toolkit is expanded by the active use of the method of archetypal analysis according to the classical concept of analytical psychology of C. G. Jung to form a stable interpretive matrix, which involves the hermeneutic and comparative methods and elements of mythocriticism. This allowed for a relatively objective analysis of artistic images that serve as a manifestation of certain mental phenomena.
The subject of the study is the artistic techniques and means that serve as tools for explicating the psychic, in particular the structural substances of the personal conscious and unconscious of Maria Matios, as well as the personal and national dimensions of archetypes in her prose.
The source base for the understanding of the writer's inner world, which, according to the principles of psychopoetics, is her megatext, is determined. The object of scientific research is the works of Maria Matios, which have a high potential for explaining mental phenomena, divided into two categories: fiction revealing psychoautobiographical aspects and psychoautobiographical publicity.
This contributed to the realization of the main purpose – to outline the lines of the psychoportrait of the contemporary writer Maria Matios on the basis of her megatext and to analyze the main artistic techniques and means that ensure the embodiment of personal and national dimensions of archetypes in memoirs and fiction.
The quintessence of the psycho-autobiographical field of megatext is the collection “Torn Pages from an Autobiography” as a fundamentally new understanding of memoirs, which appear in the author's collection of memoirs, contributions, speeches, essays with original composition and design. The material of “Torn Pages from an Autobiography” illustrates the dynamics of the formation of Maria Matios' psychological world, the development of empathy, the formation of the writer's worldview, and the key concepts around which her ego is centered – justice, historical truth, motherhood – which are reflected in expressive fragments of memoir prose.
The classical elements of the individual unconscious of Maria Matios (Shadow, Animus) are comprehended on the basis of her artistic works, devoid of the filter of the Persona, which is responsible for the representation of the individual in society. There are almost no traces of the author's Shadow in the writer's memoirs due to the desire for positive self-identification. In the course of the literary and psychological interpretation of the works from the collections “The Four Seasons of Life” and “The Nation”, the artistic embodiment of Animus and his gradual integration by the psyche, accompanied by various images that reflect internal and external obstacles, mental inflation, and the influence of the Shadow, are traced. The term “structural substances” was introduced to describe these elements of the artist's psychological world, which implies their separation but inseparable connection and mutual influence at the same time. Since the Jungian concept implies the use of the term “archetype” in a rather broad sense, the set of key individual images that embody these components is called the personal dimensions of archetypes. Instead, the images that are significant at the level of the nation are defined as national dimensions of archetypes. A detailed analysis of these phenomena is facilitated by psychologism as a qualitative feature of Maria Matios' poetics.
The paper outlines that almost all Jungian structural substances of the collective unconscious are represented in the psychopoetics of Maria Matios to some extent, namely: Great Mother, Divine Child, Wise Old Man, Sacred Marriage. According to the objectives of the study, their artistic explication was analyzed. Given the importance of feminine themes in Maria Matios's work, the archetype of the Great Mother is dominant in her prose.
