Existential discourse in Vasyl Stus poetry

У статті розглянуто окремі поезії зі збірки Василя Стуса «Зимові дерева» крізь призму філософії екзистенціалізму. Простежено, як у них реалізуються мотиви трагізму буття, абсурдності світу, бунту, свободи вибору. Обґрунтовано визначальну для поета національно-екзистенціальну модель світу та сенсу людського життя.Introduction is to find the level of emotional and intellectual stress of the existential quests of Vasyl Stus in his poetic collection «Winter trees». Purpose is to highlight the essential problems that faced the poet: tragedy of being, absurdity of the world, revolt, choice, loneliness, nothing, by analyzing lyrical works of the mid 60s, that included in «Winter Trees». Methods existential and interpotational approaches, descriptive, philological, cultural and historical. Vasyl Stus poetic art is bright phenomenon in Ukrainian literature of second half of XX century. His lyrics certifies a high level of existential philosophy what based on two factors such as affiliation to Sixtiers and circs of living long life in prison. Stus poetry full of desire to personally colored being their leitmotif is opposition to all faceless, protest against assimilation, desire for freedom that must be realized among life’s randomness, in fight with absurd where everything starts over and over again. Poet lived in closed and controlled society which was aggressively tuned to any manifestations of national consciousness. Living in such a world generated in his soul a tragic sense of senselessness and absurdity of life. Deeply dramatic experiences in Stus’s poetry are caused by the fact that a person is aware of the variability of his own Self, is aware of personal responsibility for finding the meaning of life, for realizing his life choices. The artist’s sentiment and experience are projected to the fate of his country all the time. The transformation of the inner experiences of the poet reveals his tragic vision not only to the life of the individual, but also to the future of the Ukrainian nation. The belief in the ability to attain another state, for which one only needs to destroy the insincerity of real reality, is given to the poet «here» and «now» impracticable. The soul experiences of the poet put him before the existential choice, which focuses on the main problem of Ukrainianity in the 20th century: the contradiction between national and international, patriotism and bolshevism, individual and social. Understanding the poet of his own life looks like a constant «border situation», in which he again and again is forced to self-assert himself, to defend his own Self, to challenge the system with its lie and violence against a person, and therefore to exist in the infernal space. Loss of freedom has become a confirmation of the rightness of the chosen position. In prison, poetry becomes Stus’s means of combating cruelty and senselessness of the Soviet system, becoming an alternative to spatial suffering and evil. Originality is proved that deeply dramatic experiences of the lyrical hero of the collection «Winter Trees» are caused by the fact that he is aware of the variability of his own Self, realizes personal responsibility for finding the meaning of life, for realizing his life choices. The analysis of the motives of the poems of the collection «The Way of Pain» suggests that the defining priorities of the existential discourse of Vasyl Stus are the categories of tragedy of being, the absurdity of existence, rebellion, choice, loneliness, which are directly related to national non-freedom, the marginal status of Ukraine in the Soviet space