Representation of Violence in Ukrainian Literature of the Russian-Ukrainian War

01/08/2026 to 31/07/2028

This project investigates the representation of violence in contemporary Ukrainian metamodernist fiction during the Russian–Ukrainian war and explores how these literary representations shape readers’ resilience. While violence has become a defining feature of contemporary Ukrainian literature, metamodernist authors develop narrative strategies that convey traumatic experiences without normalising brutality or overwhelming readers. Focusing on works by Sofia Andrukhovych, Kateryna Babkina, Artem Chekh, Yuliia Iliukha, Markiyan Kamysh, Volodymyr Rafeyenko, Haska Shyyan, and Serhiy Zhadan, the project examines how empathy, psychological depth, and cautious hope redefine literary responses to war.

The study addresses three main questions: how violence can be represented through sensitive, life-affirming poetics; how references to historical traumas foster readers’ resilience; and how escapist fiction functions under conditions of ongoing war. It argues that metamodernist texts mitigate the shock of violence through affective narration, indirect representations of atrocities, ethical orientation, and narratives that balance trauma with hope and recovery. Furthermore, they reinforce collective resilience by connecting present experiences with earlier historical traumas, while escapist narratives provide imaginative spaces that simultaneously reduce anxiety and encourage readers to process wartime experiences.

Methodologically, the project combines literary analysis with trauma studies, memory studies, theories of violence, and metamodernist theory. It also relates literary developments to changing public attitudes by drawing on sociological data. As the first comprehensive study of violence in Ukrainian literature of the independence period, the project contributes to scholarship on contemporary Ukrainian literature, metamodernism, and the cultural representation of war, offering new insights into the relationship between literature, trauma, memory, and resilience.