Home, Family, and War: Images of Home in the Ukrainian Novel About the War in Donbass

Abstract

This article focuses on one of the most pressing issues in Ukraine today, the ongoing war in the Donbass. Using selected examples of Ukrainian prose, the authors analyse the impact of the war on the fate of individuals and their families. However, the theme goes far beyond the literary text and touches on important social and political issues facing Ukraine today. The authors understand prose as one of the narratives of culture, which not only conceptualizes reality in a certain way, but also has a real impact on social attitudes. Contemporary Ukrainian prose about the war in the Donbass analyses many stereotypes about the inhabitants of eastern Ukraine, shows them in their complicated family relationships, and also takes up one of the most universal literary motifs, namely the figure of the house in the face of a disruption of its everyday order. Characteristic of this prose is the individualized perspective, which aims not only to present events on a broad political level, but above all to draw attention to the impact of these events on the individual. Such an individualized perspective is an effective means of reaching the recipient and making him aware of the multidimensionality of the military conflict taking place before our eyes.