THE THEME OF SUICIDE IN ENGLISH, UKRAINIAN AND RUSSIAN LITERATURE

Abstract

At present time the problem of suicide is becoming relevant. We can see articles in press, electronic media, as well as works of fiction that describe both committed suicides and suicidal attempts. In the minds of people there are two opposite points of view on this problem. On the one hand, suicide is considered as a manifestation of freedom of choice of a person who can choose death, including “death from his own hand”. On the other hand, suicide is considered as a social phenomenon that touches upon the interests of society. The suicide of a giving person is reflected in the micro social structure of the giving society, influencing its condition as a whole. Study the problem of suicide in fiction we can’t touch the theme of death because suicide is a death only “death from one’s own hand”. The science about death is called thanatology and has its own structure. Besides thanatology itself, this includes suicidology, which studies the phenomenon of suicide; the theory of aggressiveness; taphology, funeral culture; immartology, studying the idea of immortality; gerontology, the science of aging and criminology, the discipline that studies murder. Art works being sources of thanatological information give a unique opportunity to learn the thanatological experience of past generations, to consider different models of attitude to death and the other world. In the history of fiction there is a sublime, idyllic and romantic image of death. Thanatological motives have some pragmatism, in the context of the work they, as a rule, exert an aesthetic effect on the reader, as well as thanatological motives can influence on social behaviour and actions of people. From the point of view of psychoanalysis, there is not only an attraction to death, but also an attraction to writing about it; it is sublimation of the thanatological instinct. The problem of suicide is considered not only by doctors, psychologists, suicidologists and philosophers but also by writers.