The motif of orphanhood in the narrative of trauma and healing: Volodymyr Rafeyenko’s fiction about Russia’s war against Ukraine
The motif of orphanhood in the narrative of trauma and healing: Volodymyr Rafeyenko’s fiction about Russia’s war against Ukraine

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the narrative of trauma and healing in wartime fiction by the Ukrainian writer Volodymyr Rafeyenko, namely, in the works Dovhi chasy (miska balada) (2017; Eng. trans. The Length of Days: An Urban Ballad, 2023), Mondegreen: Pisni pro smert’ i lyubov (2019; Eng. trans. Mondegreen: Songs about Death and Love, 2022), and others. The focus of the study is the discovery of the protagonist’s identity in the context of remediation and premediation processes as components of cultural memory. The narratives are interpreted through the prism of the motif of orphanhood, considered in two ways: as a political metaphor and as one of the real manifestations of the war trauma. The methodological tools of this article include Astrid Erll’s interpretation of the role of remediation and premediation in the dynamics of cultural memory, and Tamara Hundorova’s interpretation of the maternal and paternal images in the Ukrainian post-Soviet novel.

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