Unconsciously created subtext: methodology of implicit meaning identification and interpreting in the artistic texts

Художній текст - надзвичайно складна та багатопланова система, яка створюється та набуває мистецької сили завдяки таланту письменника. Імпліцитні смисли художнього твору - це, водночас, і невід'ємна його складова, і показник високої художної якості. Проте природа цих прихованих планів у творах високого мистецького ґатунку, як доводять дослідження, може бути різного характеру. Так, існують художні тексти зі свідомо твореним прихованим смислом, який ретельно вимальовується талановитою рукою митця. Ідентифікувати та проаналізувати такі підтексти часто буває надзвичайно складно, адже, по-перше, не завжди можна знайти докази того, що імпліцитні смисли - це цілеспрямована робота письменника, а, по-друге, природа прихованих смислів робить їх такими, що важко піддаються ідентифікації та аналізу. «Несвідомо» творені підтексти, тобто ті, що існують у тексті не тому, що автор задумав їх створити; вони виникають та проявляють себе від надзвичайної майстерності художнього письма, «глибинності» авторського тексту, його емоційної та зображальної потужності, фактично від геніальності їх творця. Така передумова дозволяє нам висунути припущення про те, що приховані смисли, як «свідомо» так і «несвідомо» створені, виникають завдяки використанню автором таких мовних та художніх засобів, які здатні згенерувати високій ступінь драматизму, психологічності, підсилити певні настрої та ідеї твору, тим самим відкривши читачеві шлях «углиб» тексту. До таких засобів відносяться повтори різного роду та на різних мовних рівнях, художні деталі, «сильні позиції» твору, такі як заголовок та кінцівка. Проте є і менш досліджені, але від того не менш дієві щодо створення прихованих смислів: це і «асоціативні сітки», і «лейтмотиви», і «сугестія», тобто поступове навіювання емоційного настрою. Маючи в арсеналі весь набір важливих підтекстових засобів, видається можливим здійснити ефективний та цілком достовірний аналіз механізмів творення та функціонування навіть «несвідомо» твореного підтексту. Оповідання Григора Тютюнника є ідеальним матеріалом для подібного дослідження, оскільки відомо, що він не створював багатошаровість своїх творів свідомо, проте їх уважне прочитання дозволяє відкрити численні підтекстові плани, які разом з поверхневим смислом створюють потужний високохудожній текст. Дана розвідка доводить, що «несвідомо» творені приховані смисли піддаються ідентифікації та аналізу, а це, у свою чергу, відкриває шлях до більш глибокого пізнання того, що ж власне є «геніальний» високохудожній твір. Подібне дослідження дозволяє також суттєво підвищити якість процесу інтерпретації літературного тексту, а, значить, потенційно і якість його перекладу.

Ключові слова: «свідомо» та «несвідомо» творений підтекст, імпліцитний смисл, сугестія, асоціативна сітка, лейтмотив, інтерпретація тексту.

Problem under consideration. Dealing with the question of subtext generation and functioning, one cannot help arguing that it is an extremely subtle and vague phenomenon. Yet, it seems quite possible to study and analyse not only its nature but also the ways it works in a literary text. With the help of the so-called consistent holistic method, carefully revealing all the stylistic means responsible for subtext creation and performance, we might be able to explain it in a more versatile way as well as improve the overall quality of text interpretation and translation. In previous studies we have investigated the subtext which was purposefully created by the writers (Tarnavska, 2020; Tarnavska, 2022), now we would like to look into the issue of the «consciously» built hidden meaning to see if similar strategies can be implied to this type subtext.

The latest research analysis. Literary subtext from the point of view of its generation and interpreting was studied by numerous scholars belonging to the so-called «traditional school» (Haleeva N.L., Halynska I.L., Hrintser P. A., Zorivchak R. P., Kukharenko V. A., and others), though one might find a lot of deeper insights into the nature of hidden meanings as well as their connection to the other text and supertext elements (Fateeva N. A., Kondratenko N. V., Pryhodko V. B., Hrek L. V., and others). The subject matter of subtext is still quite popular among scholars as its studies give way to better understanding of the nature of a text in a broad sense as well as of its interpretation and translation.

The article is aimed at the deeper study into the «unconsciously» created subtext in Hryhir Tyutyunnyk's works to better understand the way it is constructed, that is, to identify stylistic literary means used to build up the hidden meaning and to analyse the ways they work together to lead the reader into the depth of the text. The next step of the investigation is to reveal and interpret the subtext in order to prove the possibility to make up a comprehensive strategy for hidden meaning study and to apply it to the literary interpretation analysis of other literary texts.

The main body of the article. Throughout his creative life, Hryhir Tyutyunnyk wrote relatively little, but each of his works is an example of the true art. The author worked on his stories and novels for a long time, carefully choosing almost every word. Tyutyunnyk's diaries testify to his enormous work. Amazing integrity of the writer's works is characterized by the high functionality of every, as a rule, very «disguised», outwardly imperceptible expressive and pictorial technique. Yet, the most important thing is that all the works of the artist are rich in implicit meanings, which give them amazing artistic energy and make them attractive to the reader.

Emotional «mood», the possibility of ambiguous interpretations - all these are signs of the presence of the implicit sphere in literary works. Many researchers of Tyutyunnyk's writings, like Taras Avrakhov, claim that the author often uses «the forms which enable double reading», and «the absence of a direction is generally very characteristic of the writer». This, in turn, allows «the complex of the reader's far-reaching reflections to spin to infinity» (Аврахов, 1992: 46-48). Inna Prykhodko emphasizes the mastery of Hryhir Tyutyunnyk in creating an artistic detail that can develop into a symbol and even into a subtext, as well as «create a general mood, determine the tonality» of the work. (Приходько, 2003 59-60).

We have already stated that the nature of the implicit meanings of the writer's works as well as of their generation differs from the hidden meanings of J. D. Salinger's and V. Shevchuk's writings. After all, as it is confirmed by the diary entries, epistolary and numerous memories of the writer, Hryhir Tyutyunnyk never thought about subtexts and their meaning in the literary text. Nevertheless, each of his works contains a hidden idea (and often more than one), which prompts the reader to think and as the reader goes deeper into its essence, the idea unfolds, revealing new meanings of what is being read. That is why we can claim that implicit meanings in Hryhir Tyutyunnyk's works exist, but they can be called unconsciously created, since the writer did not build hidden meaning planes thoughtfully, as Salinger and Shevchuk did.

Umberto Eco characterized a literary work endowed with high artistic qualities as «open». The «openness» of the work is achieved with the help of «unidentified prompting» (that is, understatements in the text) and «emotional triggering» (that is, the creation of additional emotions in the process of text perception). Another important feature of an open literary work is «offering tense situations in which unresolved problems collide and where the way out must be sought» (Еко, 1996: 412-414). In the short story «Try Zozuli z Poklonom» («Three Cuckoos with a Bow») the idea of text openness is realized at the level of implicit meanings, because «mysteriousness», «unpredictability» and «emotional triggering» provide the possibility of deep and endless reader interpretations.

The idea of the story, its main pathos, is expressed in the dedication of the work: «Dedicated to the Love Supreme». Let's turn to the author's own understanding of love. The word «love» is one of the most important words in Hryhir Tyutyunnyk's philosophy of life: it is love in the broad, comprehensive meaning of this word, love for friends, for women, for people in general («The main thing in literature is human», said Tyutyunnyk (Григорів, 1988: 189). The writer also had a special love «for words, for sentences, for good, precise prose. (...) And again: prose begins with a word, with a sentence, and it must be born in a loving soul, in a passionate, caring heart» (Стеблина, 1988: 397). The theme of Love is an «eternal» theme for the artist, it «leads and fuels» his creativity (Шугай, 1988: 480). So, for Hryhir Tyutyunnyk, love is one of the most important concepts of being, the principle of human existence. At the same time, love is not only joy and excitement, it is also self-sacrifice, loyalty, which often requires suffering, it is pain. «A writer is born from love and torment - there is no other way for him» (Шевченко, 1988: 453). These are the words of Hryhir Tyutyunnyk in his memoirs by A. Shevchenko.

Let us follow the way the author's concept of love is realized in the subtext of the story. There are few characters, and they are detailed quite discreetly.

The central images embodying the hidden idea of the writing are Marfa and Mykhailo. Marfa is an image of a woman hopelessly in love with a married man. Marfa knows that Mykhailo loves his family, his wife and son, and will never leave them. When Mykhailo is sent to Siberia, to the Stalin's camps, he occasionally writes letters to his wife, but Marfa feels in a strange, almost mystical way that a letter has arrived, and waits for the postman to ask him to hold a letter from her beloved in her hands, even if it is not addressed to her. Mykhailo is an honest, loyal person. Family is his sanctuary. On the other hand, he sees and feels very well what is happening to Marfa. And most importantly, he understands her feelings and suffering, and tries to ease this pain. Thus, the story of strong but unrequited love is displayed before the reader and the implicit sphere of the story opens up with a deeper understanding of the essence of the main characters.

Marfa is a sensitive person. She perceives the world in an acute and subtle way, her feelings are extremely bright and strong. She seems to be «woven» with emotions. Her exceptional emotionality is revealed in the portrait image: she is «thin, fragile, in a delicate embroidered shirt and a voluminous skirt over her bare feet...». This is how we see her at the threshold of the village post office, to which she ran, intuitively sensing that a letter had arrived from Mykhailo. The analysis of this portrait image is capable of demonstrating the very essence of the writer's creation of a text endowed with a rich implicit meaning. At first glance, it is an ordinary portrait. However, its implicit reading truly reveals a deep meaning which is inaccessible to the «naked eye». Marfa's physical fragility testifies to the superiority of the spiritual over the material («body»). She, as they say, «lives in spirit», like a hypersensitive membrane, she vibrates with sensuality. The poor embroidered shirt testifies to both the poverty of her «collective farm» life and her natural Ukrainian character, while the «abundant skirt over her bare feet» literally suggests an impression of femininity and a kind of defenselessness, vulnerability opposing the world.

The verbal portrait of Marfa, as well as all other portraits by Hryhir Tyutyunnyk, is an example of the text endowed with high artistic informativeness, or, in other words, high content density, which is the creative principle of the author. Despite the fact that this text is endowed with all the signs of «genius simplicity», its full perception requires a thorough reader who is able to detect implicit meanings. And this is natural, because a highly informative, content- dense text always contains semantic depths. Almost mystical, at first glance, Marfa's ability to feel the arrival of letters from her beloved is explained by her heightened perception of the world, her ability to have sincere and strong feelings and the ability to feel the mood of other people. Such hypersensitivity is often determined physiologically and is characteristic of creative, open, exceptionally sensitive people. Marfa is an extremely «feminine» image. Mykhailo is the embodiment of an ideal man. But the most important thing is that this attractiveness frames and highlights the features of his character. Mykhailo is sensitive to what is happening around him, and he is especially perceptive to other people's pain and sufferings, he notices and perfectly understands Marfa's feelings, respects these feelings and tries to ease her pain. This nobility is complemented by his love for work. He does not only loves what he does, but also wants it to be beautiful. With great pain, he writes from the camp about how devoid of beauty are the wooden things he had made: «.. .my heart aches when I think that this is what comes out of my hands» (Тютюнник, 1984: 284). The most important feature of Mykhailo s character, necessary for understanding the hidden idea of the story, is revealed in the culminating episode of the novel: «Sonya! Do not judge me bitterly. But I have never lied to anyone and I won't tell anyone now: I hear every day that Marfa's unhappy soul is walking somewhere near me. Sonya, come to her and tell her that I sent her, as the blind man sang at the Zinkivsky bandurist fairs, I sent three cuckoos with a bow, but I don't know whether they will fly over unpassable Siberia or they will fall in the frost. («unpassable Siberia» was crossed out by an indecisive hand in thick black ink, and above the same hand wrote again: «unpassable Siberia»). go, Sonya, my only beloved in this world! Maybe she will call her soul back and then oblivion will come to me at least for a moment. I embrace you and carry the cradle with my son in my arms as long as I live...» (Тютюнник, 1984: 285). Even as he endures terrible suffering, both mental and physical, in a camp in faraway Siberia, exhausted, he remembers his wife and son, who have become the most important duty of his life. And this is not surprising, because Mykhailo is a man of his word, of duty that he will never betray. Yet again, why does he feel the presence of «Marfa's unhappy soul» near him every single day? We find the answer to this question by turning to the subtext of Marfa's image, to her emotional hypersensitivity. Mykhailo, like Marfa, has a keen sense of life around him: he subtly reacts to the feelings of other people, as if living them through himself. One might say that he feels the world in the same way as Marfa, and that is why he is able to feel her - they seem to be «tuned» to the same emotional wave, and this reveals the kinship of their souls.

Thus, the author created two ideal images - Marfa's and Mykhailo's - images of «femininity» and «masculinity». These are people endowed with extraordinary emotional sensitivity, able to delicately feel the surrounding world and each other, and at the same time they demonstrate the highest degree of spiritual nobility. They are two halves of one whole. The author created an ideal image of love. For Marfa, this love is self-denial, complete dedication to her own feelings; for Mykhailo it is loyalty to the family, sympathy for those who suffer, love for people. But all these are manifestations of true «supreme» love, which fills human life with meaning. This is the hidden idea of the story: to show the power and mystery of love in all its manifestations, to show the connection between humanity and the ability for true, deep feeling. It reveals the high humanistic pathos of the writer. One of the most important implicit meanings lies in the interpretation of love as a highly spiritual phenomenon. Only spiritually elite people are capable of true love.

We cannot help mentioning strong positions of the story, as the work is given a certain «openness» by its title «Try Zozuli z Poklonom» («Three Cuckoos with a Bow»), because it is not just an important artistic detail, it is a complex and deep symbol. The compositional technique of placing the symbol in the title also testifies to its importance for understanding the implicit scope of the story. The image of the cuckoo is both a symbol of idleness, envy and adventurism and a symbol of spring, summer, new life, as well as stability and obstacles overcoming. In Ukrainian folklore, the cuckoo is a symbol of longing, prophecy (Плачинда, 1993: 28). As we can see, the image of «three cuckoos with a bow» seems to be possible to consider exclusively as a single whole, because none of the different interpretations explains the riddles present in the story.

To understand the title of the novel, it is necessary to turn to its subtext and remember Mikhail's extraordinary sensitivity. Sensitivity in the perception of the surrounding world, as a rule, is characteristic of artistically gifted, emotional, vulnerable people. That's exactly what Mykhailo was. In his letter to his wife, he talks about his vivid dreams, full of bright, emotional memories of his home. It becomes clear from the letter that Mykhailo is well aware of the impossibility of his returning home, and, since he feels the world better than others, that is how it really is. Therefore, anticipating the inevitable, Mykhailo calls to Marfa's feelings, calls mentally, though extremely expressively. He imagines the cuckoos, which are so numerous in his native land and which, of course, do not live in Siberia, and through the cuckoo he seems to get a piece of himself back to his Motherland. This comeback is mournful, because it foreshadows his quick death. However, Mykhailo does not betray himself even in such a desperate situation - he thinks about the people he knew and loved, he feels his, albeit involuntary, guilt in Marfa's suffering. In his message, he respects Marfa's feelings, bowing to her, asks for forgiveness, and says goodbye: here they are, the real «three cuckoos with a bow», the most sincere expression of true love, respect for love and for the people he loves. This artistic detail seems to sound like a final, powerful chord in the work, in which Tyutyunnyk glorified the mystery and power of true love.

Let's summarize the features of creation and manifestations of implicit meanings in the short story «Try Zozuli z Poklonom». Like in Salinger's works, the reader is immersed in the subtext through the mysteries, unanswered questions and problems raised in the text. However, unlike Salinger, who consciously created the subtext of his works, which means he purposefully created riddles, questions to which he did not give comprehensive answers, Tyutyunnyk did not aim to «hide» the ideas of the story in the subtext. On the contrary, the epigraph to the novel already sets the reader up for its perception, creating a «certain emotional mood».

Riddles in Tyutyunnyk's story arise, first of all, through a masterly laconic depiction of events and images that provoke thought and leave room for «guessing». The author describes only those events, images and details which are enough to direct the reader's thoughts into the essence of what is happening. This explains the extraordinary functional load of artistic techniques that working together to reveal a hidden idea even deeper. Thus, the artistic details in the story are single-vectored, that is, clearly aimed at showing the depth and multifacetedness of the idea of true love existence and of its manifestations. More than that, it is necessary to note the high content density of the artistic text created by Tyutyunnyk, as we are profoundly convinced that a highly informative artistic text is always rich in implicit meanings.

Secondly, riddles in the novel occur because of the mystery of the very problem of love. This is a riddle that does not have and cannot have a single answer, a single idea about its nature, manifestations and role in human life. Everyone finds (or does not find) this answer for himself. The writer only offers a situation, gives an impetus to the reader's thoughts, and thereby stimulates their deepening into the problem. Riddles are also present in many other works by Tyutyunnyk, and all of them come out as an attempt to understand human relationships, which have always been «the most incomprehensible mystery of the world» (Марко, 2003: 219).

Conclusions and further research prospects.

To sum up, the mechanism of the implicit meanings in Tyutyunnyk's works can be described as follows: deeply penetrating into life, the author directs the reader's thoughts to understand the essence of a problem or a phenomenon. Since the ideas that are explicated from hidden motives belong to the philosophical, universal ones, they are able to generate numerous additional ideas and opinions with the readers, which will be different for each of them. This allows us to speculate on such essential features of Tyutyunnyk's subconsciously created subtexts as «openness», that is, the possibility of numerous individual reader interpretations, and «depth», thanks to which endless reflections on the ideas expressed in the story are generated. Obviously, those are not the only techniques to create unconscious subtexts in Tyutyunnyk's work, further interpretation analysis of his writings might be our goal for the nearest future.