Textual lacunae and the paradoxes of their interpretation

Abstract

The article is devoted to textual lacunae, those paradoxes of unspokenness that arise when reading works of art and often lead to the discovery of different, completely opposite meanings in them, because the perception process is influenced by many factors: sociocultural context, social or professional affiliation of the reader, his / her life experience, age, gender, situation, etc. The relevance of this study is stipulated by the need to clarify different literary versions of the image of the main character from Leonid Mosendz’s novel “Roksoliana”, included in the collection “Liudyna Pokirna” (‘A Submissive Man’, 1937). The study is conducted by means of the receptive and hermeneutic research methods, that allowed to trace the difference in the filling of textual lacunae, which led to the fact that Ihor Nabytovych interprets the heroine as a traitor, Vira Prosalova – as a bride who seeks to save her beloved. The different perception of the main character’s image is determined by the author’s strategy: an appeal to the figure of the beloved wife of the Turkish Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, the inclusion of a novel in the collection, the title of which sets the stage for a meeting with submissive characters and to some extent defines the type. The ambiguity in the work is also achieved by the reduction of important scenes, in particular the preparation and destruction of the Bolshevik headquarters, a break in the course of the plot (2 weeks of the absence of an eyewitness of the events), highlighting the image of the newest Roksolana only through the perception of the narrator, pointe as a genre feature of the novel, the incompleteness of the work, a stylistic figure of aposiopesis. The composition of this short story is based on the technique of syncresis, which confirms the author’s conscious intention not to dot the і’s and cross the t’s, but force the reader to draw a conclusion about the essence of patriotism and apostasy. The article focuses on those means of poetics that activate the reader’s attention, give space to his imagination, and therefore often lead to different readings, because the recipient fills in the gaps at his discretion. The conclusion is substantiated about the author’s conscious strategy, designed to draw attention to the figure of Roksolana, the reader’s involvement into the process of co-creation, and the potential openness of the artistic text for subsequent receptions.