Information on the thesis

In the thesis, mythological images and magic rituals of Ukrainian folklore of
Transcarpathia were analyzed in a complex by ethno-psychology for the first time in
Ukrainian Folklore Study. According to the ideas of scholars of mythological and
psychological schools of Folklore Study, the images of pagan gods, demons, two-soul
men, supernatural creatures, the personification of elements were studied and their
connection with the psychology of Ukrainians was found out. Various magic rituals
are considered as a metaphoric attempt of a person to feel herself/himself as a
demiurge, to influence nature and her/his own life according to the law of contagious
and homeopathic magic.
In the thesis, great attention is paid to specific features of objectification of
mythological images in folk stories, myths, tales, legends, spells, and calendar songs
of Transcarpathia. Among them, demonic images can be often found in legends. In
return, the images of demiurges are present in carols and fairy tales in which relics of
ancient Ukrainian myths were preserved.
In Ukrainian folk and poetic discourse folklore and mythology of Transcarpathia are
featured by their specifics: They had pagan mythological images and magic rituals. This
can be found in folklore notes of F. Zlotskiy, M. Fintsytskiy, G.A. de Vollan,
P. Bogatyryova, V. Hnatyuk, Y. Zhatkovych, V. Grendzhi-Donskyi, L. Demyan,
O. Markusha, I.Pankevycha, F. Potushnyak, P. Svitlyk, S. Rosokha, A. Fedorkov,
M. Scherbey, P. Lintur, I. Senko, I. Hlanta which became the object under analysis of the
dissertation. Transcarpathian old stories, legends, tales, magic rituals show that
Ukrainians had two religions. This metaphorically describes the process of development
of human consciousness, the formation of moral and ethical values, fight against
destructive instincts and desires, also they contain archetypical images and motives
decoding of which allow a better understanding of the national character of Ukrainians.
Mythological images that are present in tales, old stories, and beliefs of
Transcarpathia vividly disclose the specifics of perception of the surrounding world by
Ukrainians and their place in it. Human fear of the evil that is hidden in a person’s soul
is shown up with the help of various images of two-souled men, demons, and
anthropomorphic creatures. A person tries to supersede it into the sphere of the
unconscious. The ambivalence of some personages (warlock, gonykhmarnyk,
vitryanyk, Fate, Death, images of deceases) displays the belief of Ukrainians in the
possibility of subordinating by the consciousness of some destructive desires and
impulses (the archetype of Shade). It proves the optimistic world perception. At the
same time the plots of old stories and tales under analysis, from the one hand, are
metaphoric warning against spirits and demons, and, from the other hand, the
symbolic scenario of avoiding traumatic experience for a person as a result of meeting
with evil is proposed (that is the objectification of person’s dark alter-ego).
The analysis made in the dissertation gives the reasons to claim that, in Ukrainian
folklore, two-soul man, demons, nature spirits, and anthropomorphous creatures are of
archetypical semantics (negative Shade, negative Anima/Animus, awful Mother, Self).
Beliefs, fairy tales, old stories, and legends the main characters of which are these
personages symbolically represent the idea of the struggle of motives in the human
psyche, it is balancing on the verge of the good and the evil.
Keywords: folklore of Transcarpathia, ethno-psychology, archetype, old stories,
legends, myths, beliefs, rituals, symbols, two-soul men, demons, nature spirits,.