Review article
Home as a Site of Memory: the Problem of a National Identity in Victoria Amelina’s Novel Home for Dom
Uljana Fedoriv
; Ivan Franko National University of Lviv
Abstract
The article is devoted to one of the key topics of modern Ukrainian literature – the problem of national identity. It is emphasized that the Home is one of the symbolic images which represent the model of perception and interpretation of the past. Appealing to Pierre Noraʼs works, the Home can be interpreted as a site of memory, as a unit symbolizing the voice of ancestors, the confluence of past and future. The study examines Victoria Amelinaʼs novel Home for Dom, in which the Home appears as a spatial metaphor of family memory, as a place of memorial experiences of generations (both individual and collective). Interpreting the Home as a philosophical and ontological constant, the author addresses the problem of internal homelessness and existential orphanhood. She focuses on the problem of unfoundedness, "disorientation on the ground" and the trauma of totalitarian past.
The research subject encompasses the problem of national identity, its loss and search, the memory of generations, the traumatic experience of the Soviet past, the phenomenon of post-totalitarian consciousness. Therefore, what is the Home in Victoria Amelina's novel: the "landscape of the underprivileged'' who are not united by the memory of the past or the place where national self-identification took place?
Keywords
: Home, memory; national identity; shadow of the past; trauma; landscape; topos; site of memory; post-totalitarian consciousness
Hrčak ID:
270864
URI
Publication date:
29.12.2021.
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