У статті з позиції семіотики здійснено літературознавчий аналіз повісті Г. Хоткевича «Камінна душа». Досліджено семантичне наповнення ключової міфологеми твору – вогню (живої ватри), яка виступає моделлю очищення людини через покаяння героїв (Марусі, Дмитра, Юріштана). Зроблено висновок про багатоплановість змісту міфологеми: передусім вона слугує виявом традицій та вірування місцевого населення (гуцулів) із їхнім містичним ставленням до неї, по-друге, враховано додатковий аспект символіки вогню, його архетип як засіб розкриття характеру героїв (Маруся), із актуалізацією метафоричної семантики цього поняття: вогонь – життя, вогонь – пристрасть та гріх, вогонь – переродження.
The literary work of G. Khotkevych is noted by a large number of works on the Hutsul subjects. Hutsulshchyna struck it with its original culture and national color. Mr. Khotkevich was enthusiastic about gathering oral folk art, ballads, columyuses, legends and legends about the land. One of the most famous works of the writer about Hutsulshchyna is «Stone soul», which faithfully depicts the life of the autochthonous population, their life and customs.
Purpose – to carry out the literary analysis of the novel by G. Hotkevich «Stone soul» from the position of semiotics.
In the article, from the position of semiotics, a literary analysis of the story of Hnat Khotkevich «Stone soul» was carried out. The ancient thinker Heraclitus of Ephesus considered the fire to be the firstborn of the world in which everything is born and disappears, and the space itself is eternal fire. At the moment, the views of the researchers are divergent: some tend to consider the fire of Heraclitus a mystical metaphor, with which he tried to characterize the intellectual activity of man, while others are talking about the materialist understanding of fire elements. Early Byzantine ascetic literature presents the image of a burning fire as a sin, passion. In view of the naturalness of the life of the Hutsuls, who saw the spring as a rebirth of the vitaisic forces, one can regard the fire as a metaphor for the unconscious, anticipated passion of the heroine.
Slavs of the pagans adored the power of fire in the image of Svarog, who rebuked the world. The fire was tied to the sun, serving as the heavenly messenger. The cosmology of the Ukrainians gives him the matter of the male, which, with the goddess Dana (forever young goddess of water, the wife of the Light), gave birth to Love, the Earth, the World. In the life of Hutsuls fire is present in the form of wool shepherds. The word «Vatra» has an Indo-European origin, and its etymology is derived from the name of the ancient Iranian sun god and fire – Atar.
The semantic content of the key myths of the work – fire (live vatry). She serves as a model of human cleansing through the repentance of the heroes (Marusy, Dmitry, Yurishtan).
The conclusion is drawn on the versatility of the content of the myths: first of all, it serves as a manifestation of the traditions and beliefs of the local population (Hutsuls) with their mystical attitude to it, and secondly, the additional aspect of the symbolism of fire, its archetype as a means of revealing the character of the heroes (Marusya), with the actualization of the metaphorical the semantics of this concept: fire is life, fire is passion and sin, fire is rebirth.
