The dissertation is devoted to the analysis of psycho-poetic features of Todos Osmachkaʼs prose. The results of the study are important for understanding the artistʼs personality: the peculiarities of his conscious and subconscious mental manifestations, which are transformed into the uniqueness of the authorʼs poetics and distinguish him from others, reviving the recipientsʼ interest in the exclusivity of his personality.
The paper systematically analyses the writer's megatext: memoirs (autobiographies, My Comrades. A Historical and Memoir Study of the People of the Executed Renaissance of the 1920s’, memoirs of L. Kovalenko, V. Bilyaiev, P. Odarchenko, Y. Stefanyk, H. Kostiuk, T. Moroz-Strelets, V. Pokalchuk, U. Samchuk, M. Skorsky, P. Filipovych, O. Chernenko) and the artistʼs prose heritage (novels «The Senior Boyar», «Rotunda of the Murderers», «Plan for the Yard» and the story «Mental Relief»). The analysis of the sources that reveal aspects of the artist’s existential and psychophysiological traits makes it possible to identify the inherent signs of artistry and ensures the objectivity of the analysis.
The scientific novelty of the study lies in the expansion of the possibilities of psychopoetics as a psychologically oriented literary technology, which contributed to further understanding of the personality and work of Todosiy Osmachka. The chosen methodology is complemented by certain provisions of the doctrine of affect studies (B. Massumi, Y. Lesniak), ethnopsychological research (Y. Lypa, H. Lozko).
The verbalised manifestations of the artist’s personality: letters, autobiographies, memoirs, which traditionally define his megatext, include artistic biographies by M. Slaboshpytsky «Poet from Hell», «Todos Osmachka: A Literary Profile», I. Vlasenko «The Fugitive Todosz», Sofia Naumovych «The Last Days of Lviv», and P. Mayr «Fear». These sources to a certain extent interpret the real facts of the writer’s life, which compensates for certain gaps in the megatext. The psycho-poetic methodology was deepened by the analysis of the writer’s worldview positions and their artistic realisation.
The dissertation comprehends the scientific views of O. Vertyporokh, N. Zborovska, A. Pecharsky, O. Piskun, I. Skliar on the concept of «psychopoetics»; the main provisions of the psychopoetic methodology developed by S. Mykhyda and implemented in the scientific works of L. Baziv, Y. Datsenko, O. Ivashyna; the research tools are outlined. The scientific studies on the issue of autobiographical and psychobiographical creativity are reviewed. The necessity of using the concept of psychoautobiography in the study, which legitimises a work of art as a source of revealing the artist’s psychological world, is argued. It is shown that Todos Osmachka’s novels and the short story «Mental Relief» are psychoautobiographical.
