Abstract
Relevance of the research. Despite the unprecedented development of science, technology, and information systems, contemporary human beings continue to encounter phenomena that exceed rational explanation and actualize existential experiences of fear. This determines the relevance of studying the phenomenon of the horrible.
Problem statement. The need to examine this phenomenon is intensified by the necessity to clarify why images and plots of the horrible, formed within archaic mythological consciousness in premodern and early modern culture, remain relevant in contemporary Ukrainian society and continue to shape the ways in which human beings comprehend their own existence.
Analysis of recent research and publications. In contemporary Ukrainian philosophical discourse, the horrible has been studied through the experience of war, fear, and trauma in the works of V. Aheieva, O. Zabuzhko, O. Panych, and T. Liutyi, as well as through research on evil and antiphobic practices by O. Vovk, K. Bohun, M. Stoliar, O. Prykhodchenko, and others.
Research task. To carry out a philosophical and anthropological interpretation of multimodal forms of representation of the phenomenon of the terrible in the folklore and mystical discourse of Ukrainian culture as a holistic semiotic and cultural complex, as well as to trace the relationship between archaic forms of world perception and modern cultural practices of representing fear.
Main material presentation. The phenomenon of the horribly belongs to the cultural universals that shape the semantic configurations of the semiosphere of culture and determine the modes of symbolic structuring of human experience. Despite the ambiguity, polysemy, and variability of its semantic connotations, in the European cultural tradition it represents a relatively integral experience of the anthropology of fear, in which several common features can be identified. Above all, the horrible is associated with liminality in the face of death, chaos, transgression, and the loss of one’s own identity. Ukrainian demonology, like European demonology, testifies to the formation of a traditional worldview, within which fundamental anthropological problems related to fear, death, uncertainty, and human interaction with otherworldly dimensions of being were interpreted.
Conclusions. Despite secularization and the spread of the scientific worldview, mythological structures continue to function in mass culture, the media space, and the social imagination of late modern society. The analysis makes it possible to conclude that the horrible acts as a cultural indicator that reveals the hidden fears of an epoch, demonstrates the limits of rational mastery of the world, and opens new perspectives for understanding the anthropological challenges of the present.
Keywords
References
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