THE PECULIARITIES OF NATIONAL IDENTITY OF AUSTRALIAN UKRAINIANS IN THE WORKS OF L. BOHUSLAVETS

After a period of continuous troubles that Ukraine has witnessed over a period of its history, the issue of national identity today appears to be more acute than ever before. It is explained by various reasons that are not under consideration in this research. However, the notion of national identity, its factors and modern perspectives are of a great scientific importance. Amid the principles of identity there is one that refers to the existential feeling of belonging and the desire to unite in factions with those who share similar interests. Besides, national identity is viewed as the factor that affects the preservation and development of the Ukrainian nation. The paper presents the research with aim to define the national identity and its integral parts that are essential for identity preservation. National identity is understood as a collective structure that illustrates how similar or different the elements of society are. Five factors of national identity that are considered in the paper are the collective identification that is realized in religious and cultural beliefs, common history and the feeling of belonging, active social life, which is illustrated by one's participation in cultural activities, geographical belonging and national character that is a set of cultural believes followed by the representatives of a particular national group. The literary work of Lesia Bohuslavets, a Ukrainian immigrant who lives in Australia, is under consideration in this paper. She was defined as a writer under analysis as she is viewed as an example of those conscientious Ukrainians who feel responsible for cultural and national preservation. The literary work “My Australian kuma” of Lesia Bohuslavets was analysed by means of content analysis which is a statistic means of language evaluation. The result of content analysis proved that national character and active social life categories were marked with the highest variables. It means that exactly these factors are the most influential in the context of national identity preservation.