У роботі розглядається екзистенція страждання людини в тоталітарному суспільстві на основі аналізу роману Уласа Самчука «Ost». «Модус страждання» особистості досліджується в контексті етико-філософських поглядів письменника та концепції національного екзистенціалізму організації українських письменників-емігрантів МУР.
The article comprehends the mode of suffering and the peculiarities of its aestheticization in Ulas Samchuk's epic novel "Ost". The basis of the study is the concept of the national specificity of existentialism of the Ukrainian philosopher Mykola Shlemkevych. Suffering is seen as an artistic tool for revealing the psychological and spiritual traumatic nature of Ukrainian men in the totalitarian society of the twentieth century and the impetus for it to find meaning in life and the formation of their way of life. U. Samchuk presented the existence of man in the totalitarian political system through the prism of existential categories: alienation and loss of meaning; existence in the face of death; self-identification of the individual in the conditions of non-freedom of the individual. Most of the characters in the novel "Ost" are the bearers of the features of an existential character: lonely, alienated from the world, exist on the verge of despair and fear of nothingness. However, the author's goal is to embody the guiding principles of the theory of national existentialism - anteism, so all the heroes of the work are tested for honesty, stability, and fidelity to the principles of humanity, overcome "threshold" situations to find the truth of life, based on national identity, unity of traditions. The author's concept of suffering is based on the existential aesthetics of the motive of vitalistic existence: to live at any cost, even when life itself takes the form of absurdity.
