Олена Чебанюк, кандидат філологічних наук, старший науковий співробітник відділу української та зарубіжної фольклористики Інституту мистецтвознавства, фольклористики та етнології імені М. Т. Рильського НАН України.
У статті проводиться аналіз сприйняття учасниками і свідками подій Революції Гідності протестного простору, ремінісценцій, які він породжував, те, з якими історичними подіями співвідносився, які викликав асоціації, образи. Розглядаються віртуальні просторові моделі Майдану, а також міфологеми та неологізми, що виникали у назвах локацій, майданівських мікротопонімів.
Ключові слова: Майдан, центр, периферія, просторові моделі, локації, мікротопоніми.
Olena Chebaniuk, Candidate of Philological Sciences, Senior Researcherof the Department of Ukrainian and Foreign Folklore by Maksym Rylskyi in Institute of Art History, Folklore and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
The space of Maidan: symbolic and metaphysical features
Independence Square/Maidan in Kyiv has been the site of political protests in Ukraine’s recent history since the late 1980s. Euromaidan in modern political discourse has gained international significance as a protest action of outraged people against the unjust actions of those days’ Ukrainian government. The word “Maidan” is now used as a marker of the time of November 2013 – February 2014, the community of protesters; denotation of the place in the center of the capital city, where the protests took place. The area where the protests took place was larger than the central square of the capital, Independence Square. It had a center and a periphery. The stage on the Maidan was a political, informational and symbolic center. There were barricades on the outskirts that marked the protest area of the Maidan. The center and periphery were not stable. They changed, narrowed and expanded depending on the course of events. After the beating of the students, the protest center was located in the square near the St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery for several days.
On November 1st, the center of resistance returned to the Maidan. Mykhailivskyi Zolotoverkhyi (St. Michael’s Golden-Doomed Monastery) remained the spiritual center of the Maidan. The Maidan area was symbolically compared to medieval Kyiv, a fortress city. According to another model, Maidan was compared to Zaporozka Sich. In the memories of the protesters, the Maidan was perceived as “their” space. It was opposed to “foreign” space around its perimeter. The common place of memories is the celebration of the Maidan space as a space of freedom, dignity, positivity, goodness. Priests of different denominations explain the unique spirit of the Maidan by the metaphysical presence of God. The main leitmotif of many memories is the perception of Euromaidan as a kind of model of an ideal society. The struggle against the then regime is
identified with the struggle between good and evil, light against darkness, and freedom against slavery. During the three months of its existence in the center of the capital, Maidan created micro-locations, which had their own history and their own name. The area of the Maidan was a little over a kilometer, but it was perceived by those who were in it, as large as “New York”. Respondents often note the aberration of perception of space and time on the Maidan.
Keywords: Maidan, center, periphery, spatial models, locations, microtoponyms.