GLITCH ONOMASTICS AND SEMIOTIC MUTATIONS OF SPACE IN UKRAINIAN PROSE OF THE LATE 20TH AND EARLY 21ST CENTURIES

Abstract

The article explores the transformation of the category of artistic space in Ukrainian literature of the transitional period through the lens of onomastic anomalies. The author proposes and substantiates the concept of “glitch-onomastics” – a specific semiotic phenomenon characterized by a systemic failure in the connection between a literary toponym (the signifier) and its real geographical denotatum. The relevance of the study stems from the need to update the toolkit of literary onomastics within the postmodern and metamodern paradigms, where space loses its ontological stability, transforming into a fluid construct, a digital simulacrum, or a zone of trauma.
The paper provides a comparative analysis of texts by Y. Izdryk, V. Rafeienko, and I. Pavliuk, tracing the evolution of the “toponymic glitch”. It is established that in postmodern discourse (exemplified by Y. Izdryk’s novella “The Island of Krk”), the glitch functions as a tool for ironic deconstruction and linguistic play. Here, the real toponym undergoes desemanticization, turning into an acoustic anomaly and a Baudrillardian simulacrum that marks the hermetic nature of the artistic world and the impossibility of escaping the boundaries of the text. Conversely, in metamodern prose (specifically in V. Rafeienko’s novel “Mondegreen”), the nature of the glitch changes fundamentally: it becomes a semiotic indicator of existential trauma and the liminal state of the displaced protagonist. Glitch-onomastics is realized here through the mechanism of a toponymic palimpsest, where the physical space of Kyiv conflicts with the phantom space of the lost city of Donetsk.
Particular attention is paid to I. Pavliuk’s novel “I See You Are Interested in Darkness”, where the space of the village Buskiv Sad is interpreted as a “dead zone” or a systemic loop, where geography is governed by psychological reflection rather than physical laws. The conclusions emphasize that the evolution of glitch-onomastics in contemporary Ukrainian prose reflects the general movement of the literary process from ironic detachment toward a search for “new sincerity” through the processing of traumatic experience. The proposed approach opens prospects for further study of spatial anomalies in veteran and emigrant prose as means of verbalizing a fractured reality.