Migration discourse of contemporary Ukrainian literature: theoretical model and thematic horizons Cover Image

Міграційний дискурс сучасної української літератури: теоретична модель і тематичні горизонти
Migration discourse of contemporary Ukrainian literature: theoretical model and thematic horizons

Author(s): Olena Romanenko
Subject(s): Ukrainian Literature
Published by: Uniwersytet Adama Mickiewicza
Keywords: migration; migration discourse; Serhiy Zhadan; Volodymyr Rafeyenko; identity;

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the features of depicting migration in modern Ukrainian literature. Serhiy Zhadan’s short stories from the collection Big Mac and Other Stories and Volodymyr Rafeenko’s novel Mondergrin are the object of the analysis. The theoretical model of migration discourse research is described. The main aspects of such research are highlighted, for example, the typology of the character as Alien/Other; identity crisis and the formation of a multi-layered complex identity through assimilation/differentiation; plot models of moving/escaping/losing “one’s own” or mastering “another’s space”; traumatic experience and search for “their” community. Based on the structural model of the story of exile (relocation, migration), the plots of internal and external movement in modern Ukrainian literature are analyzed. It is proved that the plots of external and internal movement in the prose of Serhiy Zhadan and Volodymyr Rafeenko reproduce the crisis of the character’s identity. These are plot collisions in which border/border situations are embodied, in which “one’s own” and “another’s” describe the relationship between man and the spatial image of the world, a new semiotic model of reality in which the migrant found himself.

  • Issue Year: 10/2022
  • Issue No: 01
  • Page Range: 193-212
  • Page Count: 20
  • Language: Ukrainian