The image of the femme fatale in modern Ukrainian novels

Abstract

Aim of the article is to discover the specificity of artistic representation of the femme fatale image in Ukrainian novels of the beginning of the 21st century as the manifestation of deep gender transformations of contemporary’s consciousness.

Methods. The system approach which included comparative method, the elements of psychoanalytic methodology and mythological analysis has been applied in the research. Integrated methodology allowed to compare the interpretations of the femme fatale image in individual authors’ pictures of the world and to revealed the semantic transformations of the images-archetypes in works of modern writers.

Results. In the article the cultural and esthetic preconditions of actualization of the femme fatale image in modern Ukrainian novels are discovered. It’s proved that the topicality of this image for the artistic thinking of the beginning of the 21st century is explained by the total doubt in authoritative systems of knowledge and increasing attention to the irrational manifestations of human psyche. The correlation of this image with the genre and style specificity of the literary works are traced. On the examples of the novels by Oles Ul’yanenko and Volodymyr Lys the peculiarities of artistic rethinking of neo-noir and gothic novel in modern Ukrainian literature are demonstrated. The semantic links of the artistic constant «femme fatale» with the other archetypes represented by the prose of the beginning of the XXI century are traced. The distinctions of interpretations of this image by authors-carriers of masculine and feminine mentality are concretized.

Scientific novelty. The article presents the analysis of artistic tools, symbolic meanings, genre and stylistic matrixes which characterize the femme fatale image modeling in some literary works of modern Ukrainian novels for the first time.

Pactical significance. The article is of great help to the further scientific comprehension of the peculiarities of artistic representation of woman and femininity in modern novels. The results of the research can be used for writing course projects and qualification papers.