The transformation of absence in Sofia Andrukhovych’s style (based on the novel ‘Catananche’)

Abstract

The article focuses on the image of the absence (or “absence”) of war in the text. Using a comparative method, this novel was compared to previous texts, in particular the 2020 novel Amadoka, in which the image of absence (absent locations, absent memories, absent portrait characteristics, etc.) was first manifested most vividly in Sofia Andrukhovych’s style; thus establishing the scale of absence in the novel Catananche. As a result of the study, the key transformation that took place in Sofia Andrukhovych’s authorial style was determined to be a change in the scale of absence.

Special attention is given to the representations of visual art, which function as a means of preserving and reconstructing memories of war. The study compares this technique to similar memory-restoration strategies in Amadoka, where photographs and social media posts serve this role. In Catananche, this function is performed by sketches created by the character Lesia. Drawing upon the methodology of memory and trauma studies, we analyzed how war, even after its end, continues to affect people and how the memory of war operates in characters of different ages: the teenager Taia, the middle-aged Lesia and Oleksa (Taia’s parents), and the elderly neighbors Zhanna and Maksym. The study identifies the ways in which traumatic experience is perceived and processed, as well as the mechanisms through which different generations of Ukrainians cope with the trauma inflicted by war.

In the context of the war, it is essential to analyze, explore, and identify various ways of writing about war. This defines the relevance of the research, as the revealed stylistic features open up new possibilities for further study of the author’s prose. The analysis of the image of the “absent” war demonstrates how war trauma is received in Ukrainian literature and culture more broadly, offering new perspectives for interpreting contemporary Ukrainian literature in a wider cultural context. The established connection with Andrukhovych’s previous writings and their stylistic features provides a foundation for subsequent inquiries into the place of Catananche within the author’s overall creative oeuvre.