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DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2021.45.09.4
How to Cite:
Atamanchuk, V., & Atamanchuk, P. (2021). Modelling the personage’s fictional consciousness in the play by Igor Kostetskyi “The
twins will meet again”. Amazonia Investiga, 10(45), 42-51. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2021.45.09.4
Modelling the personage’s fictional consciousness in the play by
Igor Kostetskyi “The twins will meet again”
Моделювання фікційної свідомості персонажа у п’єсі Ігора Костецького
“Близнята ще зустрінуться”
Received: July 15, 2021 Accepted: August 25, 2021
Written by:
Viktoriia Atamanchuk
12
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5211-2480
Petro Atamanchuk
13
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3646-8946
Abstract
Анотація
Метою статті є окреслення кореляцій між
використанням елементів абсурдистської
естетики, різними художніми парадоксами та
методами моделювання фікційної свідомості
персонажа. Завдання дослідження полягає у
визначенні внутрішніх та зовнішніх вимірів
побудови фікційної свідомості персонажа за
допомогою методології когнітивного
літературознавства. Методологія
когнітивного літературознавства є основою
для аналізу принципів моделювання
фікційної свідомості персонажа у п’єсі І.
Костецького «Близнята ще зустрінуться».
Таким чином, вивчення п’єси ґрунтується на
актуалізації відображених когнітивних явищ
та встановленні їхніх кореляцій із формами
художнього відображення. Когнітивний
метод використовується для визначення
теоретичних основ функціонування вигаданої
свідомості персонажа у драматичному творі.
Поетика абсурду в драмі визначає
аглютинативні форми відображення
вигаданої свідомості персонажів.
Ключові слова: драма, драматична дія,
персонаж, фікційна свідомість персонажа,
п’єса.
Introduction
Kostetskyi’s dramatic works, which represent a
complex, multifaceted phenomenon that
accumulates various stylistic features (from
expressionism to surrealism), absorbs
12
Doctor of Philological Sciences, Leading Researcher, National Centre “Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine”, Ukraine.
13
Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Kamyanets-Podilsky Ivan Ohienko National University, Ukraine.
multidimensional artistic phenomena (paradox,
absurdity), attracts the attention of many literary
critics. Scholars Bila (2006), Stekh (2005) has
studied the stylistic features of the writer’s
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drama; Barabash (2018), Zaleska Onyshkevych
(1997) has analyzed his work in the context of
modernism; Batsevich (2017), Kovaliv (2010),
Lyubenko (2005), Matvienko (2001) has
identified the experimental levels in the
playwright’s work, etc. The artistic complexity
of I. Kostetskyi’s dramatic works creates
preconditions for multifaceted interpretations,
the relevant means of synthesis of which are
cognitive literary methods.
A playwright’s dramaturgy represents the
comprehension of new art forms that contribute
to the semantic and artistic complication of plays,
the transformation of their content, the rethinking
of the role and significance of the structural
components of drama. O. Lyubenko notes the
role of I. Kostetskyi in the creation of artistic
innovations in Ukrainian drama: “The emergence
of a real experimental Ukrainian drama was due
to I. Kostetskyi…” (Lyubenko, 2005: 36). The
writer identified the horizons of the development
of Ukrainian drama in the new ideological and
artistic coordinates. For example, it is difficult to
imagine the developments of contemporary
Ukrainian drama, which is the object Virchenko
and Kozlov’s (2021) research without the
I. Kostetskyi’s achievements in the sphere of
drama.
The artistic multidimensionality and innovation
of the writer’s dramatic works provide grounds
for outlining various stylistic parameters.
I. Kostetskyi’s dramaturgy appears as a complex
artistic phenomenon that provides various
possibilities for interpretation. In dramatic
works, the writer uses elements of the theater of
the absurd (breaking the logical, structural
connections at different levels of the structure of
dramatic works); surrealism (eclectically
combining disproportionate qualities, processes,
events, etc.).
Stylistic features that contribute to the
strengthening of artistic conventionality,
significantly affect the forms of modelling the
personage’s fictional consciousness in the
dramatic works of the writer. Fictional
consciousness defines the artistic space of a
playwright’s plays in which the action takes
place, embracing the perceptions of different
personages, forming variable and multiple
focalizations. Fictional consciousness appears as
a way of switching between different states,
spaces, forming a whole entity of disparate
fragments, connecting them in complex artistic
combinations, which ultimately leads to the
formation of a single artistic meaning generated
by different interactions of diverse artistic and
structural correlations.
The aim of the study is to determine the
correlations between the use of artistic paradoxes
and methods of modelling the fictional
consciousness of personage, in particular to
outline the internal and external dimensions of
constructing fictional consciousness of
characters using the methodology of cognitive
literary studies. Cognitive literary studies cover a
significant number of theories (cognitive
narratology, cognitive rhetoric, cognitive
poetics, conceptual integration, etc.), each of
which is characterized by the study of certain
cognitive parameters, which are transposed to
specific literary problems, such as modelling of
personage’s fictional consciousness.
Theoretical Framework
T. Cave’s scientific work outlines the principles
of cognitive research of literary works. The
researcher notes that literature can reflect such
cognitive activities as emotions, imagination,
nonverbal reactions, interaction with other
people and the world in general (Cave, 2016).
The scientist emphasizes the need to form an
interdisciplinary paradigm of literary cognitive
studies. An important aspect of the study, the
researcher considers “the way human cognition
works – its capacities, its constraints, its deficits”
(Cave, 2016: ix), because the scientist perceives
fiction as a “product of human cognition” (Cave,
2016: ix), which “illustrates its functioning at an
especially complex level” (Cave, 2016: ix). In
T. Cave’s concept, fiction appears as an
artistically transformed space, the elements of
which are correlated by cognitive processes in
the form of mental construction, imagination,
perception, communication, and so on.
The researcher’s ideas form the basis for the
analysis of various plans of the artistic depiction
in a literary work on the basis of a cognitive
approach, which includes ways of reflecting
cognitive processes in fiction; artistic means used
to reproduce the cognitive activity of the heroes
of the literary work; the cognitive processes that
appear in the form of the results of multilevel
modelling, due to the interaction of the intentions
of the author, who encodes, and the reader, who
decodes, the artistic information embodied in the
text. The theory of T. Cave structures the main
principles of the cognitive approach to literary
analysis, which emphasizes the intratextual
dimensions of works of fiction from a cognitive
perspective.
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Many theoretical developments in cognitive
literary studies have been made in the field of
cognitive narratology. The object of scientific
works in cognitive narratology of L. Herman,
B. Verwick (2001), D. Cohn (1978), A. Palmer
(2004), B. Richardson (2007), M. Fludernik
(2005) and others were the prose works, but the
theoretical generalizations made by them are
relevant for trans-generic research. The inclusion
of drama in the field of narratology allowed
literary critics to extrapolate the theoretical
achievements of cognitive narratology to the
study of dramatic works.
M. Fludernik’s scientific work “Towards
‘Natural’ Narratology” is devoted to
substantiating the expediency of studying drama
with the help of narratological methodology. The
researcher formulates a new definition of
narrative “in terms of cognitive (“natural”)
parameters” (Fludernik, 2005: ix). She views
narrativity as “experientiality, namely by the
quasi-mimetic evocation of ‘real life
experience’” (Fludernik, 2005: 9). The author
explains the term experientiality:
Experientiality can be aligned with actantial
frames, but it also correlates with the evocation
of consciousness or with the representation of a
speaker role. Experientiality, as everything else
in the narrative, reflects a cognitive schema of
embodiedness that relates to human existence
and human concerns. (Fludernik, 2005: 9).
The researcher outlines various forms of
narrative, but emphasizes the similarity of the
reflection the processes of consciousness in
different types of verbal, theatrical, dramatic and
cinematic art. She defines the universal cognitive
mechanisms that function in works of art,
regardless their genre affiliation. M. Fludernik
states that film and drama are narratives, to which
the same system of cognitive parameters is
applied, and they depend on the same frames of
perception as prose texts (Fludernik, 2005).
Important theoretical observations that testify the
relevance of the narratological studies of drama
are performed in the work of Nunning, Sommer
(2008) “Diegetic and Mimetic Narrative: Some
Further Steps towards a Transgeneric
Narratology of Drama”. Scholars point to
“dramatic narratives that imitate language and
action (mimesis)” (Nunning, Sommer, 2008:
337). Researchers distinguish dramatic and epic
narratives, while identifying universal theoretical
aspects for the formation of narrative approaches
to the study of drama, as they consider the
dramatic text in the form of reproduced
statements and actions of the characters as one of
the types of narratives.
Scientific works devoted to the study of
narratology of drama indicate the formation of
trans-generic dimensions of research, which
contributes to the adaptation of the achievements
of cognitive narratology to the analysis of drama
and at the same time contributes to the creation
of universal narratological instruments. The
scientists substantiate expediency of
narratological research of drama by considering
the concept of “experientiality”, by studying the
narrative elements embodied in the plot of the
drama, although in general the narrative is not a
characteristic feature of the drama; by analyzing
the vicissitudes, actions of the characters in
dramatic works, which embody certain stories;
by research of features of creation the images of
characters; by study of temporal and spatial
features, by formation of causal relationships and
possible models of further development. Also
scientific works, among which are Fludernik
(2005) “Narrative and Drama”, Sommer (2010)
“Drama and Narrative”, Hunn and Sommer
(2014) “Narration in Poetry and
Drama”, Richardson (2007) “Drama and
Narrative”, etc., outline the interference
phenomena that can be traced at the level of
drama theory and transgeneric theory.
As has been mentioned above, the relevant
scientific studies in cognitive narratology, with
the prose works as the object of study, play an
important role in the learning the problem of the
personages’ fictional consciousness reflection in
dramatic works. The analysis of these researches’
works gives the chance to define the general and
specific principles of the analysis the
construction of personages’ fictional
consciousness in literary works. In this context,
the scientific work of Palmer (2004) is important,
because the theoretical generalizations of the
researcher are relevant for the formation of
methodological parameters for studying the ways
and means of representing the personages’
consciousness in fiction. The theoretical
foundations of fictional consciousness
construction, defined by the researcher, become
the basis for specification of general scientific
principles that are acceptable for the analysis of
drama.
The following theoretical positions of Palmer
(2004) are important for studying the process of
modelling the personage’s fictional
consciousness in drama: consideration of
fictional consciousness as the main element of
literary theory; determination of the fictional
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consciousness of the hero through individual and
social manifestations, delineation of levels and
ways of their interaction; classification of types,
means, methods, construction of the hero’s
consciousness (linguistic expression, ways of
focalization, character creation, originality of the
plot organization, methodological
comprehension of the theory of possible worlds,
the theory of reader’s reception, etc.); study of
the fictional consciousness of the character
through the analysis of his statements, actions
and deeds. The problem of intersubjective
interaction, which, according to Palmer, occurs at
the level of characters’consciousness, forms
particular vectors for the study of dramatic
conflict.
The article of Richardson (2007) “Fictional
Minds: Natural and Unnatural” contains
important theoretical observations regarding the
nature and various interpretations of the concept
of consciousness in fiction. The researcher
determines the external approach to the analysis
of consciousness manifestations, pointing to its
limitations. He distinguishes fiction and
nonfiction on the basis of the ability to reproduce
internal processes in the minds of others. From
the standpoint of studying the uniqueness of
fictional consciousness modelling in drama,
Richardson’s statements about the artistic
reflection of internal processes occurring in the
minds of characters through the reproduction of
various mental and emotional states are
important. The scientist formulates the general
methodological principles of the fictional
consciousness functioning: the
representativeness of the reproduction and study
of consciousness in fiction, the creation of the
consciousness of the characters through
interiorization.
The comprehension of important elements of
cognitive structures is carried out in the work of
Turner (1996) “The Literary Mind”. The author
considers ways to build mental structures as
important components of the consciousness
functioning through the formation of abstract
models, the study of their components and ways
of their interaction. The researcher outlines the
theoretical foundations of the various mental
constructions formation. His theoretical
generalizations determine the consideration of
literary texts as a form of functioning of the
author’s consciousness, express patterns,
principles, mechanisms of creation of mental and
figurative constructions in consciousness, their
semantic content, artistic implications, their
functioning as structures of consciousness.
Methodological principles and theoretical
conclusions of the scientist are important for the
study of fictional consciousness of the character,
as it determines the similarity of the processes of
real thinking and thinking realized in the literary
text, in terms of interiorization. Ways of forming
schemes, creating projections, originality of
organization, functioning, interaction of mental
spaces, which the author of the work investigates,
form an important theoretical principles of the
fictional consciousness studying. The main
principles of meaning creation and its various
embodiment, which are considered by Turner,
are necessary components of the analysis of the
consciousness of the hero, constructed in the
literary text.
In the context of cognitive literature, mentioned
researchers pay attention to: the reproduction of
internal processes in the minds of the characters
through the use of internal speech and the
reflection of possible states of the characters
through the external manifestations; study of the
principles of various interactions of characters in
literary works, which are determined by the
states of their consciousness, and at the same
time determine these states; research of artistic
texts, understood as two-way processes of
creation of artistic reality and expression of
consciousness, from the standpoint of their
reception; formation of various figurative
schemes as ways of creating mental projections
that structure the space of a literary work;
analysis of ways to build mental spaces.
Theoretical positions formulated by scientists
create a basis for outlining the methodological
principles of studying the forms, means, methods
of modelling the fictional consciousness of the
character in drama.
Methodology
The research is based on theoretical principles
that cover the correlations between real and
fictional consciousness; structural dimensions of
character consciousness modelling; artistic and
semantic dimensions of modelling the fictional
consciousness of the personage. The study of the
problem of modelling the personage’s fictional
consciousness is carried out on the basis of the
following theoretical principles: the
consciousness of the personage is constructed by
taking into account the fundamental patterns of
the consciousness functioning; these patterns are
modified in accordance with the peculiarities of
the embodiment of the fictional consciousness of
the personage within the artistic reality;
correlations of the personage’s fictional
consciousness and the consciousness of the
author are determined by the basic schemes of
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functioning of the personage’s consciousness,
which are created by the author; the fictional
consciousness of the personage is created by
multilevel artistic virtualization, which is
determined by the boundaries of fictional reality,
formed as a result of the action of the author’s
consciousness.
The analysis of the problems of modelling the
personage’s fictional consciousness in
I. Kostetskyi’s play “The Twins Will Meet
Again” is carried out by using the methodology
of cognitive literary criticism, which determines
the study of literary works based on actualization
of cognitive phenomena and establishing their
correlation with forms of artistic reflection. The
cognitive method is used to determine the
theoretical foundations of the functioning of the
personage’s fictional consciousness in the
dramatic work. The study is based on the
definition of fictional consciousness:
Fictional consciousness of the personage appears
in the form of the constructed by the author
ability of the hero to realize internal and external
realities in complexes and systems of their
correlations, which determine the identification
and the personage’s actions within the fictional
world. (Atamanchuk, 2020: 115).
Results and Discussion
I. Kostetskyi’s artistic experiments with form
(transformation of the essence of structural
elements in plays, rethinking the role and
significance of structural connections between
constituent parts of literary works at different
levels, etc.) and content (building new structural
and semantic relations from the standpoint of
destruction of logical patterns, eclectic
combination of multidimensional events,
processes, characteristics, etc.). Artistic
conventionality, which becomes a fundamental
factor in constructing a fictional world in a
writer’s plays, determines the ways in which the
protagonists’ fictional consciousness is
modelled.
Fictional consciousness determines the space of
dramatic action in the dramatic works of the
writer, including the perception of characters,
which creates different ways of focusing on the
perception of fictional reality. In I. Kostetskyi’s
plays, fictional consciousness serves as a means
of switching between many spaces, phenomena,
and internal states, combining the perception of
individual parts into an integrity by
demonstrating complex artistic and semantic
combinations and their structural and semantic
connections. The principles of different
focalization of fictional consciousness embodied
in the drama “The Twins Will Meet Again” by
Kostetskyi (1963), which has the author’s
definition of the play in masks.
The constant use of masks in the dramatic work
creates the effect of multidimensional
projections, the meanings of which are revealed
through the alternate concentration of attention
on various aspects, which ultimately form a
single integrity in which the initial information
presented to actors and viewers is gradually
refined with the development of action and
significantly changes in the finale of the play.
The composition of the dramatic work has
rhizomorphic characteristics. A prologue
performs an important role in the play, in
prologue the manager of the ball gives an
explanation of the peculiarities of the perception
of disparate episodes in the drama, eclectically
combined multilevel fragments of the literary
work. This character explains the hidden essence
of theatrical processes, as well as possible
variants of their interpretation, drawing clear
parallels with the phenomena of fictional
consciousness of individual characters and with
the principles of organization of dramatic action
in the play.
Lysenko, Kovaliov emphasize the originality of
the composition of the play. Literary critics note:
“The external frame of the play The Twins will
Meet Again, its structural construction has no
analogy with the previous Ukrainian dramatic
tradition” (Lysenko & Kovaliov, 2016: 179). The
compositional arrangement of parts of the
literary work contributes to the maximum
expression of such processes of fictional
consciousness as instantaneous or gradual
transitions between different mental spaces,
which reflect different aspects of definite
phenomena depending on the chosen angle.
The prologue determines the whole tonality of
the dramatic work and provides hints on the
appropriate reception of the whole action, which
will unfold both in front of the characters and the
audience. One of the important guidelines for the
further development of events is the instruction
of the ball manager on the final loss of semantic
marks in the theater, which is also perceived as a
way of worldview, due to the comprehension of
all possible forms of its representation.
Beginning with the prologue, the playwright
combines the many dimensions of artistic
reflection, blurring as much as possible the
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boundaries between reality, fictional reality and
fictional consciousness.
The ball manager acts as a figure, through the
perception of which the play is incorporated as a
real literary phenomenon into the artistic scope
of the same play, while transforming the author
himself into its character. The writer uses the
techniques of a play with meanings to emphasize
the role of the author-character, which is formed
through the perception of the ball manager,
which no longer takes an active part in the
development of action, but creates a basis for
self-organization and self-movement of dramatic
action.
The fictional consciousness in the play appears in
the form of a perception space, which functions
in certain conditions on the basis of certain
principles, according to which any processes
comprehended by the fictional consciousness are
transformed in the process of their
comprehension. The playwright absolutizes the
perception of the characters and reproduces the
different ways of interpreting the fragments of
fictional reality that they contemplate, while
emphasizing the integrity of the space of their
existence. The author creates the effect of
multidimensional inclusion of some structures,
processes, planes in other patterns by forming a
complex network of multilevel connections
between them, namely by specific organization
of dramatic action with different temporal
characteristics and a specific kind of constructed
causal order; as well as through numerous
semantic dimensions of the text of the play.
In this context, Lotman’s statement is relevant:
“Switching from one system of semiotic
awareness of the text to another on some internal
structural boundary becomes in this case the
basis for generating meaning” (Lotman, 2001:
589). The playwright constructs the artistic space
of the work in such a way that the ambiguous
semantic parameters that are formed and
simultaneously comprehended by the fictional
consciousness of the characters are
simultaneously, but with varying degrees of
explicitness, shown to the spectators as
participants in the dramatic action.
The paradoxical implications of the prologue are
determined by the reflection of the complex
relationship between the author and the play
created by him, which includes the depiction of
the author himself as a character in his literary
work, performing a cameo role; demonstration of
the alienation of the dramatic work from the
playwright and its subsequent functioning and
transformation in a new virtual environment;
reproduction of the relatively real interaction of
the author with the dramatic actors involved in
the play, which is an element of the
architectonics of the literary work; reproduction
of actors’ demonstrative comments about the
play addressed to the author; showing the
nonlinearity and deliberate disorder of parts of
the play. The artistic techniques used by
I. Kostetskyi, which increase the paradoxical
nature of the dramatic depiction, at the same time
emphasize the fragmentation and multiple
focalization of the characters’ fictional
consciousness, owing to which a confusing
multicomponent virtualized integrity is
eventually formed.
The prologue combines the following parts of the
play, providing the necessary integrated
perception of the fragmented segments of the
play. The writer represents the fictional world
through the prism of characters’ perception – the
reactions of the protagonists become catalysts for
the disclosure of hidden meanings, which
confirms the thesis of Tarnashinska: “A new
meaning is supposedly a stranger out of
nowhere” (Tarnashinska, 2008: 5). The
playwright paradoxically combines fragments of
the characters’ dialogues by breaking down
logical connections and then replacing them with
semantic relations based on specific absurdist
patterns. The whole dramatic action is
interspersed with fragments of conversations of
five couples of characters, which reproduce their
mood and experience (fear, expectations,
admiration), that determines the general
atmosphere of the play.
I. Kostetskyi forms a kind of theatrical
simulation, in which he synthesizes the real and
the imaginary things and processes in the form of
a masquerade, one-level and multilevel theatrical
play, forming a complex artistic concept
determined by multifaceted artistic and semantic
relations, interrelations. The writer emphasizes
the correlations of the real and the imaginary
planes: various imaginary representations are
demonstrated as manifestations of the reality in
the play, and imaginary forms create the
appearance of reality for the characters involved
in the theatrical production. In theatrical
simulation, with the help of a play, pretense,
disguise, which paradoxically hide (until a
certain point in the development of dramatic
action and the course of dramatic conflict) and
reveal (during turning and unexpected episodes
in the development of dramatic action) various
aspects of virtualized perception of characters
and spectators, a complex hierarchy of numerous
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dimensions of the artistic depiction with different
degrees of semantic diffusion is defined. Masks
are used to create the appearance of certain
situations, events, etc., as well as to conceal the
real phenomena, which determines the new
parameters of the dramatic action and the inner
experiences of the characters.
The compositional order of the play is
determined by the prologue, three dramatic parts
and two interludes, which contributes to the
complexity of artistic and semantic implications
by forming different levels of perception, as the
prologue, dramatic parts, interludes perform
different functions from the standpoint of
multilevel artistic conventionality. The writer
combines individual dramatic episodes with
interludes, presented in voluminous explanations
by the ball manager, who is a participant of the
dramatic action, but at the same time he
distinguishes himself as an outside observer. In
the play, this character plays the important role
of a commentator, who observes and evaluates
the events that unfold before him, and, if
necessary, intervenes in the course of events.
Batsevich notes: “The author largely shows such
traditional formal and semantic elements of
drama as prologue and interlude from unusual
point of veiw” (Batsevich, 2017: 24–25).
Paradoxical depiction is determined by the roles
of the ball manager, who transforms from a
play’s character into a fragment of the play’s
structure. Such projections of the image of the
character at different levels of the artistic
structure of the literary work form diverse
semantic variations – from the alternate
dominance of different incarnations of the
character to their one-moment paradoxical
combination.
The functions of the prologue and interludes are
determined by the interpretation of the text of the
three phenomena of the play, which creates a
prognostic effect in the interpretations of the
actors’ roles in the play and the artistic meanings
they perform in their acting. The writer
accumulates artistic paradoxes by reflecting
excessive contradictions in the comments of the
ball manager, who denies what he has said,
distorts its meaning, consciously makes
mistakes, provokes and incites actors to certain
actions, presents hypertrophied emotional
characteristics that significantly affect the
perception of a play.
The ball manager forms new meanings by
changing the essence of the play with a message
about the actor playing the roles of both twins,
and mixing the stage space, which is
characterized by complicated theatrical
conventions, and the off-stage space. The
characters demonstrate the ambivalence of
fictional consciousness, which has different
manifestations: the actors are simultaneously at
different levels of artistic reflection in the
theatrical production; actors move between
different levels of artistic conventionality and / or
combine them, which creates new dimensions of
perception. The problem of duality, to which the
author attaches system-forming significance,
maximally intensifies the uncertainty and
ambiguity of those processes and situations in
which the actors participate. The playwright
correlates the phenomenon of duality with the
formation of opposite mental spaces in the
fictional consciousness, which later acquire a
materialized form.
In I. Kostetskyi’s play the phenomenon of
duality is also based on semantic diffusion, as
twin brothers are not only the bearers of opposite
character traits, but at the same time they try on
uncharacteristic for them roles, which partially
blurs the contours of their determined
identification and at the same time promotes the
expression of moral principles, on the basis of
which their differentiation takes place. The
playwright constructs the phenomenon of duality
by gradual convergence from ignorance to
gradual recognition, which includes the meeting
of twins for the first time, their subsequent
substitution, the subsequent disclosure of their
family ties, divergence of their paths and
anticipation of the following meeting. The
process of substituting twin characters plays an
important role in the dramatic work, as it reveals
significant contradictions in the fictional
consciousness of other characters, which are
formed as a result of complex internal
experiences and chaotic vicissitudes.
The playwright emphasizes different planes of
the depiction in the play – for the audience and
the characters. In the prologue, the ball manager
informs the spectators about the twins and their
replacement. Instead, the characters gradually
learn about the main intrigue during the
development of the action in manifestation of
three parts of the play. The highlight of this
intrigue is the colonel’s phantasmagoric story
about the twins, who turn out to be his sons from
different mothers, which the author breaks into
fragments and places them in the first (before the
twins are replaced) and third (after revealing all
the secrets) parts, which forms a single plot axis
of all bizarre and intricate collisions.
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The image of Sviatoslav Togobochnyi is the
unifying center in the first part, around which
constantly changing events are structured. The
conversation between the colonel and Teresa
ends with a story about this character and his next
appearance; then there are dialogues of
Sviatoslav with his father and Teresa, which are
interspersed with fragmentary dialogues of five
couples of actors, who also talk about this
character. In the conversation between
Sviatoslav and Teresa, attention is focused on the
differences in the course of events, as the actors
show different degrees of emotional
involvement.
The dialogue is conventionally divided into two
segments, according to the roles that both
characters play in it. In the first segment of the
dialogue the dominance of Teresa is shown; she
informs Sviatoslav about her hypertrophied
feelings for him, and his reactions are
mechanical; in the second segment of the
dialogue, the main role is played by Sviatoslav,
whose statements directly or indirectly deny
Teresa’s fantasies or have no points of
intersection with her picture of the world. The
conversation of the characters, each of which is
in its airtight interior space, indirectly activates
the disclosure of the mystery on which the
development of the whole dramatic action is
based. Teresa notices a radical change in the
worldview of Sviatoslav, which is a kind of hint
of the character replacement, but her
observations are non-essential to the exalted
feelings of the heroine.
The dramatic work represents various aspects of
the phenomenon of camouflage. Partial
disclosure of information causes the further
accumulation of contradictions. By removing the
mask, Sviatoslav even more complicates the
dramatic situation. At the same time, the author
demonstrates correlations between the
phenomena of masking and duality. If
camouflage allows a character to hide his
personality or some of its facets, to test someone,
to learn certain secrets, etc., then the duality is
determined by the simultaneous coexistence of
opposite intentions of one character or different
twin characters. For example, the colonel views
duality as the result of an over-absolutization of
Sviatoslav’s ideas, and Teresa indirectly
demonstrates his duality by commenting on
Sviatoslav’s new ideas, which he did not actually
express. The concept of duality is mirrored in the
concept of bifurcation, as new ideas voiced by
the twin brother, form a completely different
image of Sviatoslav.
The writer presents different angles of two
reflections of one situation in the conversations
of four characters, namely, Sviatoslav
Togobochnyi and Peter Togobochnyi, Sviatoslav
Tuteshnyi and Peter Tuteshnyi, who
symmetrically reflect ideological opposites, with
the help of absurdist aesthetics. At the same time,
in the play the absurd acquires conceptual
significance, as it determines the features of
modelling the personages’ fictional
consciousness, which covers the whole process
of characters’ perception, as well as the process
of their self-representation, formation and
expression of judgments. External conflicts are
also built on the principles of the absurdist
aesthetics: Sviatoslav Tuteshnyi, a ruthless
underground activist, organizes his substitution
to test his bride; he inadvertently, at the moment
of disguise, gives his ideological opponent and
double Sviatoslav Togobochnyi an explosive
device, and then tries to find this device during a
masquerade ball.
Pavi determines the semantic content of the
process of disguise in the drama, which serves as
a means of revealing certain aspects of the
depicted phenomenon through comparison. The
researcher states: “The ideological and dramatic
functions of disguise are extremely diverse,
although they usually lead to thoughts about the
reality and obviousness (Marivo), human identity
(Pirandello, Genet), the display of truth” (Pavi,
2006: 243). At the same time, the apotheosis of
the absurd in I. Kostetskyi’s play is the episode
that is the result of the intervention of the ball
manager in the development of the action, in
which the characters foolishly throw a jacket
with an explosive device.
The absurdity in modelling the personage’s
fictional consciousness can be clearly seen in the
example of Teresa. The heroine tries to combine
the opposite ideological postulates of both
Sviatoslavs, perceiving them as one person. She
tries to rationalize her own feelings, as a result of
which she comes to the conclusion that it is
expedient to give up herself. The author
constructs the fictional consciousness of the
heroine by depicting absurd concepts: Teresa
expresses her readiness to go through moral
deformations for the sake of Sviatoslav, who in
fact turns out to be a completely different person
with different ideological beliefs. In the process
of rationalization, the heroine justifies her own
absurd ideas, which are formed under the
influence of Sviatoslav’s provocations and her
own painful fantasies.
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Conclusions
Modelling the personage’s fictional
consciousness in the play by I. Kostetsky “The
Twins will Meet Again” is carried out at different
levels of the artistic structure of the dramatic
work, which provides multidimensionality of
both depicted processes and phenomena, and the
concept of fictional consciousness itself, which
appears as a space of perception with multifocal
projections. The playwright emphasizes the
relativity of the depiction with the help of artistic
paradoxes, elements of the absurdist aesthetics,
surreal components that blur the boundaries
between fictional consciousness (personages,
spectators) and the fictional world (stage, off-
stage).
The author transforms the various plans of
artistic reality by mixing them, their interactions
and transitions, as a result of which the
personages’ fictional consciousness becomes the
space that covers the levels of artistic reflection
and provides switching between them. The play
identifies agglutinative forms of fictional
consciousness, involving the combination of the
realities of different personages and the
formation of their hybrid configurations, which
include a combination of realities of different
personages / actors and their artificial
interpenetration, which generates unpredictable
irrational meanings; a combination of
heterogeneous parts of dramatic action, which
form a multifaceted correlations with the artistic
integrity; constructing a complex dramatic
conflict in which chaotic combinations of
disparate components in the process of their
numerous combinations are combined into a
multilayered unity.
The sphere of fictional consciousness of the
personage, which focuses on the projections of
internal and external realities, that are shown
from unexpected and unusual angles, becomes a
space of dramatic action and performs the action
in this space, which is fragmented into different
versions of personages’ fictional consciousness
and forms an interference field, defining a new
essential artistic integrity.
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