PRAGMATIC MECHANISMS OF CONSTRUCTING NATIONAL IDENTITY IN CONTEMPORARY UKRAINIAN ESSAY WRITING (BASED ON THE BOOK “CODE OF THE NATION”)

Abstract

The article analyzes the transformational processes in Ukrainian essay writing during the period of independence (1991–2023) through the prism of its role in constructing national identity. Using the example of the collection of essays “Code of the Nation,” it is revealed that the key mechanism of influence on the audience is the illocutionary force of speech, aimed at transforming the cognitive and axiological attitudes of the addressee. The study demonstrates how, through “we-discourse,” the systematic use of presuppositions and implicative structures, the ideas of national belonging are internalized, with the author’s conclusions being perceived by the reader as their own beliefs. Particular attention is paid to the actualization of historical memory as a strategic resource for consolidation. It has been established that in essay writing, the past is transferred from the plane of passive memorialization to the sphere of normative meaning-making. Through the lens of microhistory and material culture, the authors of the collection legitimize the civilizational depth of Ukrainian identity, proposing the metaphor of a “genetic code” as the basis for intergenerational transmission of culture. In parallel with this, the linguopragmatics of the language issue are analyzed – in the essays, language is represented not only as a means of communication, but as a fundamental component of national security and sociocultural stability. Through the opposition of “us and them” and deontic modal markers, the priority of the Ukrainian language as a condition for overcoming the colonial legacy is affirmed. The paper describes strategies for deconstructing Soviet representational schemes based on myths about the “peasantry” and “secondary nature” of Ukrainian culture. Instead, essay writing offers a subjective model of identity, where local tradition becomes a model for broader national self-description. It is concluded that contemporary Ukrainian essays are an open system capable of integrating different social groups around a common value base – freedom, dignity, and European civilizational orientation – which ensures the internal stability and external subjectivity of the state in the face of global challenges.