The political aspect of the ‘freedom’ concept in Pavlo Vyshebaba’s work

Abstract

The object of the research in this article is the poetic texts of the contemporary Ukrainian military poet Pavlo Vyshebaba. The purpose of the article is to interpret the manifestation of the concept of freedom in the work of this poet. The author focuses on the political aspect of the concept of freedom, so he primarily analyzes Pavlo Vyshebaba’s work from this perspective. In the course of the study, the author also analyzes the works of military poets Kateryna “Bird” Polishchuk and Borys Humeniuk. This is done to compare the manifestations of the concept of freedom by these authors and to better understand the works of Pavlo Vyshebaba. In order to scientifically substantiate the political aspect of freedom, this article draws on the philosophical work of Dmytro Dontsov, in particular the ideas of nationalism and its fundamental principles. In particular, to clarify the terminology, the article uses Dmytro Dontsov’s “vlasnovladnist”. To achieve the purpose of the article, contextual analysis and biographical methods were used.

The relevance of the article is due to the social need to realize the value of freedom in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The novelty of the study is determined by the chosen aspect of the consideration of the lyrics of a contemporary poet, the scientific reception of whose work is generally limited.

According to the results of the study, Pavlo Vyshebaba regards the concept of freedom in the political plane. It has been found that the concept of freedom in his work encompasses personal responsibility, a higher purpose, preservation and development of cultural and historical heritage. Freedom for Pavlo Vyshebaba is “freedom from” and “freedom for”. In political terms, the last is the establishment of statehood, and the first is freedom from invaders. Pavlo Vyshebaba also has a personal understanding of freedom as an opportunity for creativity. Further prospects for the study are related to the analysis of a representative sample of contemporary military poets and poets who write about war to draw more thorough conclusions about the ideas of political freedom in Ukrainian culture as a fundamental factor in the formation of the nation.