A human in the history of family: the crisis of identity in the novel “OST” (“Moroz’s Village”) by Ulas Samchuk

Abstract

Colonial and postcolonial literature is essentially different from the literature of the colonizing states, in particular, this is manifested in the aspect of self-identification of characters. However, in this study, we are dealing with emigrant literature, which is a qualitatively different product that has absorbed the features of colonized and at the same time decolonized consciousness. This was reflected in the characters in the novels of émigré writers. The aim of the research is to analyze the peculiarities of the self-determination of characters in Ulas Samchuk’s novel “OST” (“Moroz’s Village”). The subject is the national identity of the characters, and its social conditionality. The study used such general scientific methods as analysis and synthesis, as well as the actual philological — aspect, image analysis, and historical and literary methods.

The focus was on national identity, the connection between generations and memory, tradition, and its preservation or rejection. The relevance of the study is due to a certain shift in perspective, and therefore considered aspects that scientists who have studied this problem, considered in part or bypassed. This is, in particular, the connection between the family and social identity of the Moroz family, the problem of memory and forgetting or separating oneself from the family; traced dynamics of self-awareness: the position of the characters throughout the novel is constant or variable. The novelty of the study connected with a deeper immersion in the social context of the struggle of 1917–1919 in the Cherkasy region, depicted by a writer who could afford to write in an uncensored environment and describe events without adhering to party doctrine. As a result, we found that a person’s self-determination depends entirely on society, but the environment around him is more important in adulthood than the family circle but provided that he rejected or did not preserve family memory, and illustrated this on the material of the novel “OST” (“Moroz’s Village”). The prospect of further research is to apply the chosen approach to the works of various writers of the past and present, which will see the formation and development of identities of characters under the influence of socio-political situations.