THE POETICS OF THE MYSTICAL IN FICTION: THEORETICAL ASPECT

Abstract

The article determines that the concept of the mystical in contemporary literary studies is viewed upon in both narrow and broad senses. The beginnings of the integration of the mystical component into literary works date back to the Middle Ages, when the fundamental unio mystica served as a guiding principle for artistic and literary activities. According to the Western European medieval tradition, the understanding of the mystical was dominated by the search for refuge in the contemplation of Scripture or the need for the enjoyment of the inner rhythms of the soul in a state of grace, thus literature was regarded as a means of capturing mystical experience. The paper establishes that the formation of a broad definition of the mystical occurred as a result of liberation from religious-philosophical connotations and the gaining of priority by anthropological-psychological and aesthetic-symbolic tendencies. The mystical in a literary work is represented in two ways: the first one involves depicting it as a hermetic system (the mystical as a component of the author's consciousness), and the second one appeals to the creation of imagery and events where the irrational is not subject to doubt (the mystical is demanded by the readers and rooted in their (sub) consciousness). The reception of the mystical in various literary genres has affirmed that mysticism has transformed into a literary metagenre, and the mystical into a category of metapoetics (O. Chervinska). The article determines that the concept of the fantastic is a genus to the concept of the mystical. They share the motif of mystery, belief in the supernatural, and irrationalism as a means of understanding reality, based on creating an atmosphere of intensifying fear of the unknown. While the fantastic item involves deliberate invention, the mystical thing is characterized by objectivity. It has been noted that the mystical can serve both destructive and apotropaic functions, and the main features of mystical artistic discourse are mythological, ambivalent, and philosophical ones. In the process of interpreting a literary work, the mystical expresses its ideological-symbolic meaning, represented through symbols having a mythopoetic character: numerical symbolism, color symbolism, and a complex of symbols associated with the mystical motifs of a specific mystical cultural tradition.