TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE OF FOREIGN WAR IN THE NOVEL OF SERHII PANTIUK WAR AND WE

Abstract

The article represents a range of acute historical and social problems that are reflected in the art of literature. The author analyzes the phenomenon of the traumatic impact of the war outside the homeland on the individuals and their search for ways to overcome their own painful experience in time and space without injury. To illustrate this topic, the novel of the modern Ukrainian author Serhii Pantiuk “War and We” is taken. The originality of this scientific idea, first of all, lies in the unusual object of study – the literary understanding of the individual trauma of foreign war and its projection on the model of behavior of an individual, generation or society. Secondly, it lies in the problematic background of the novel: the plot is based on marginal domestic themes of literary text, behind which we read much deeper themes – the war in Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistria. The character’s attempts to come to terms with his own traumatic experience are manifested in two directions. Firstly, he is constantly trying to return to the environment of such pain, because a peaceful life provokes a particularly complex mental reaction to the world and people surrounding him. Secondly, the author applies to his character the effect of self-therapy through literary practices of writing out the experienced guilt. Because trauma is associated with a significant undermining of the value of human life, regaining its value is a daunting task. The author of the article also considers the phenomenon of psychological trauma of an individual more broadly – as a social, cultural and historical problem. This problem seems especially relevant in the light of the post-totalitarian interpretation of cultural texts, among which modern literature takes a very active position in rethinking the traumatic Soviet experience.