The article is devoted to the study of cognitive mechanisms of actualization of the discursive topic UKRAINE in L. Kostenko 's fiction novel “The Notes of Ukrainian samashedshyi (madman)”. The interaction of conceptual metaphors, which represent the basic textual concept at a deep level, forms the original conceptual space of the work. The purpose of scientific research is to establish connections between structural, orientations and ontological metaphors of the novel, as well as to describe their semantic content, verbalized at the linguistic level. According to the topic, the object of research is a discursive topic (text concept), the subject – the means of verbalization of conceptual metaphors as its expression. The relevance of the publication theme is determined by the general tendency of linguoconceptology, aimed to the study of conceptual space of the author's literary text. The main method of research is a conceptual analysis applying of methodologies of interpretive, contextual and other types of analysis. In-text and out-of-text level connections, which are viewed by involving background contexts (historical-cultural, socio-cultural, situational, etc.), determine the discursive character of the literary text, in which the key text concept functions as a discursive topic. The metaphorical projection of the text concept UKRAINE is carried out in the context of the political picture of Ukrainian world during the “Orange” revolution. The concept UKRAINE is a structurally and contently complex mental unit of individual consciousness that represents interdependent components due to the author's choice of conceptual metaphor. Keeping the established meanings (state; country where Ukrainians live), the concept acquires specificity due to its rethinking in the mind of the writer, who has an original worldview of modern life in the context of globalization. In interpretation of the conceptual content of analyzed topic, it is important the authors’ assume about the theory of conceptual metaphor that a metaphor affects on the decision-making process of problem situation, in particular on the stage of identifying alternatives to solve the problem. The author's vision of such alternatives is manifested in the systematic use of certain types of metaphors. The emotional and pragmatic potentials of conceptual metaphors have a powerful influence on the reader’s mind. In the process of conceptual analysis the basic spheres of experience, related to the representation of the discursive topic UKRAINE were distinguished. Such spheres are represented by structural metaphors of war, morbid metaphor, game metaphor, etc. Productive metaphorical models of the novel are orientation metaphors, which are based on universal empirical experience and individual experience of the the mental language of ontological metaphors supplements the artistic and journalistic discourse. The author’s created a metaphorical model of Ukrainian reality at the beginning of the XXI century is a diffuse system of intersecting metaphorical projections, updated by the discursive topic. The perspectives for further study of metaphorical models of the Ukrainian writers’ works we see in the possibility of describing the specifics of the individual author's worldview in particular and the national picture of the world in general.