THE WARRIOR-COSSACK ARCHETYPE (BASED ON S. CHERKASENKO'S NOVEL “THE ADVENTURES OF THE YOUNG KNIGHT”)

Abstract

The article explores the artistic realization of the warrior-Cossack archetype in Spiridon Cherkasenko's historical adventure novel, «The Adventures of a Young Knight». The relevance of this work is due to Ukraine's current need to form its own national idea and value system. Appealing to historical and literary archetypes, which are the bearers of the nation's mental virtues, gains special importance in the context of searching for integral symbols. The work combines a literary approach with socio-cultural reflection.The purpose of the study is to analyze the artistic modeling of the warrior-Cossack archetype in S. Cherkasenko's novel «The Adventures of the Young Knight». The paper examines the author's use of a system of positive and negative characters, as well as key oppositions, to reveal the evolution of this archetype from an idealized image to the embodiment of a complex national identity.The research was conducted based on historical-literary, cultural-historical, mythological, and structural-functional methods.The mythological approach allowed for the revelation of the archaic foundations of the image, while the structural-functional approach allowed for the analysis of its role within the novel's character system.The article analyzes the artistic modeling of the warrior archetype through a series of positive (warrior-leader, hero, elder) and negative (registered Cossack, trickster) characters, the juxtaposition of which occurs through oppositions such as «townspeople vs. Cossacks», «old vs. Young», and so on. Special attention is paid to the images of the Cossack hetmans Petro Sahaidachnyi and Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, endowed with the traits of «kharkternytsvo» and wise leadership, as well as the image of Pavlo Pokhylenko as the embodiment of a knightly ideal, who undergoes an initiation from a townsman to a true Cossack. The negative characters of Denys Kryha and Stakh Pronoza, as bearers of a destructive force, are also analyzed.