THE HERO’S JOURNEY MOTIF AS A STRUCTURE-FORMING PRINCIPLE IN ULAS SAMCHUK’S MEMOIR-AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL PROSE (“ON THE WHITE HORSE” AND “ON THE BLACK HORSE”)

Abstract

The article examines the peculiarities of the journey motif as a structural and semantic factor in Ulas Samchuk’s documentary and artistic prose, particularly in his memoir books «On the White Horse» and «On the Black Horse». It is determined that these works form of memoir-travel dilogy in which the writer’s autobiographical experience is integrated into an artistic form according to the principles of narrative composition. The motif of the road in Samchuk’s texts embodies the mythological model of the hero’s journey from the ordinary world to the realm of trials, in accordance with the universal structure of the journey outlined by J. Campbell. The hero feels the call (lack) manifested in the self-identification of his generation as exiles; this is followed by crossing the boundary between worlds, undergoing trials, and encountering helpers and adversaries. The spatial movement of the narrative is accompanied by existential reflections, autobiographical retrospections, and observations that shape the author’s reflective narrative stance. The journey in Samchuk’s memoirs functions as a compositional principle ensuring the narrative’s integrity, connecting individual episodes into a coherent temporal configuration of the «beginning–middle–end» type. The author’s reflection reveals features of Wilhelm Dilthey’s concept of Besinnung – a contemplation of one’s life path from the standpoint of a distanced narrator for whom the past appears as a thematized whole. The analysis demonstrates that the road motif in Samchuk’s memoir prose not only records a historical event (the journey to Kyiv and across Ukraine) but also performs a metaphorical function of self-knowledge, national identification, and reflection on the cultural and ontological space of East and West. Ukraine appears as the East – a lost homeland, a site of trauma and trials caused by colonial domination. The West emerges as a space of freedom that allows the active manifestation of human creative and moral potential. Thus, the journey in Samchuk’s documentary-artistic dilogy represents a universal model of life and creative path, combining autobiographical memory, mythological structure, and historical-cultural reflection.