Monomyth in the Narrative of Symbolist Drama: "V domu roboty – v kraini nevoli)" by Lesya Ukrainka

Abstract

The article deals with the expediency of applying the narratological method, combined with the myth-critical method, in the study of drama. This approach is of particular relevance in the poetics of symbolist drama study. The language of symbols contains the potential of generalization of the maximum scale, a routine issue through a number of techniques, that can significantly expand the range of abstract meanings. This allows a concise dramatic form to contain a large-scale narrative with characters of archetypal level. Scientific
novelty: for the first time this methodology is applied to the drama-dialogue by Lesya Ukrainka "V domu roboty – v kraini nevoli (1906). The purpose and task of the article are to show how the symbol forms the multilayered structure of the drama text and the archetype of the monomyth's hero of the monomyth.

Conclusions. The six-page text through the voices of two characters and an objective narrator, presented in the remarks, unfolds a picture of the grandiose construction of the Egyptian pyramids. The narrator's voice tells a story of epic scale:
ancient civilizations that for thousands of years amaze des cendants with giant structures: temples, and artefacts. The voices of two characters, slaves on the pyramids' construction, collide in an intense agon of representatives of different faiths and different cultures. Each voice is an individual human life story, a grain of sand in
the ocean of the builders of the mighty civilization of Ancient Egypt. The key symbol "construction" unites a number of symbolic images. It allows us to imagine the construction as a majestic act of man, who, in his desire to give a decent home to the
gods, became equal to the archetypal hero. The builder, who  built the pyramids, passes the path of severe trials and becomes equal to the gods.