TOPOS AS AN IMAGE OF REFLECTION SPACE IN VASYL MAKHNOʼS ESSAYS (“ALONG THE OCEAN ON A ROVER”)

Abstract

In the following article the topological features of Vasyl Makhnoʼs essay collection “Along the Ocean on a Rover” are analyzed. The study is based on the methodology of topological reflection proposed by the philosopher V. Savchuk. The essence of topological reflection is the reconceptualization of space, which is perceived both as a carrier of social and symbolic meanings, and as a category filled with culture. All of them are involved in the practice of self-identification of the one who comprehends them, and in the case of the artist, also reproduces them artistically. It is proved that V. Makhno creates the image of adjacent memory and adjacent territories, which do not provide for a priori centering. The artist does not build any topological hierarchies, because for him both Ukraine and America are equally important. V. Makhno seeks his own involvement in two such distinct territories through images and essays, and essayistic techniques of self-identification as a form of subjective writing are best suited for this. The practices of space individualization are analyzed, among which the main ones are: reproduction of geographical locations through synesthesia images; there are little details; extremely limited number of descriptions of recognizable places, instead more focus is on objects, fragments, which are more a kind of result of the transformed consciousness; lack of hierarchy in the presentation of topos; polydiscursive nature of the texts themselves; supplementing of essays with photographs that expand the reader’s associative field, etc. The structure of the collection is also analyzed and it is concluded that 92 of its essays are freely enclosed in a conditional system: the plot or chronological sequence is not traced here. All the works are united by the practice of individualization of space, the means of transforming known places into “one’s own” through the activation of memory. The main ones are the processes of phenomenology of memory as a story about oneself as such, the process of self-awareness first of all as an artist, homo faber.