Historical memory and national perspective in contemporary Ukrainian literature for children and youth

Abstract

This article investigates the artistic verbalisation of historical memory and of a national perspective in contemporary Ukrainian literature of children and youth. Specifically, it examines Ukrainian young adults’ literature as representing a “past-present-future” paradigm. Four types of literary works give young readers an idea of events, figures and places that are spiritual and socio-cultural components of national memory: 1) historical prose, 2) autobiographical texts, 3) realistic prose, the plot of which is set in a historical period with its characteristic features of public life, ideological principles and attitude to the national, and 4) anti-utopian fantasy. Links between forms of fictional retrospection, the experience of contemporary generations and visions of Ukraine’s future as represented in the discussed narratives are analysed. These links can be found in thematic Ukrainian- centric emphases and in representations of Ukrainian patriots as national heroes, of the problem of “national harassment” and of strategies for overcoming post-totalitarian traumas.