Symbol-Image

A symbol-image is an artistic image that, alongside its concrete-objective meaning, carries a generalized-symbolic content, becoming a sign of a deeper idea, state, or phenomenon. Unlike an ordinary image, the symbol-image is polysemous and not exhausted by its direct meaning; unlike an abstract symbol, it retains full-blooded sensory concreteness. A symbol-image arises when a concrete detail or image, in the context of a work, acquires an expanded, generalizing meaning. Classic symbol-images are the cherry orchard (passing beauty), the seagull, the storm petrel. In Ukrainian literature, vivid symbol-images are the 'stone cross' in Vasyl Stefanyk's novella (a symbol of the emigrant peasant's tragedy, of the break with the native land), Panas Myrny's 'lost strength,' and the symbol-image of the garden and the word. The images of Lesia Ukrainka's fairy drama 'The Forest Song' (Mavka, the willow) are full of symbolic polysemy.