HISTORICAL MEMORY AS A SPACE OF DECOLONIZATION: CONTEMPORARY READING OF ROMAN IVANYCHUK’S NOVELS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR

Abstract

The article offers a re-reading of Roman Ivanychuk’s historical fiction, the novels “Malvy” and “Orda”, through the lens of cultural memory theory and decolonial studies in the context of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war. It has been proved that the wartime context substantially reshapes the contemporary reception of these works that go beyond a historical-literary framework and acquire a distinctly topical dimension connected to questions of decolonization, cultural memory and resistance to imperial violence. The theoretical and methodological foundation of the study combines memory studies (M. Halbwachs’s theory of collective memory, J. and A. Assmann’s concept of cultural memory, P. Nora’s “lieux de mémoire”), postcolonial criticism (E. Said, H. Bhabha, W. Mignolo) and narratological analysis of literary text. Drawing on “Malvy”, the study examines the phenomenon of janissary-ism as a universal, timeless model of forced cultural forgetting, embodied in three typological strategies of character behavior: voluntary capitulation of memory (Alim), resistance through its awakening (Selim) and compromised duality (Malsvy). It has been illustrated that none of them offers the colonized subject a safe way out. Drawing on “Orda”, the analysis focuses on the novel’s cyclical composition, structured around the recurring image of the Baturyn tragedy as an artistic model of unresolved historical trauma that continually returns into the present. Particular attention is given to comparing these literary structures with documented wartime practices of 2022–2026 (the forced Russification of education, the mass deportation of Ukrainian children, the targeted destruction of cultural heritage in occupied territories) as well as sociological data on the growing use of Ukrainian language as an act of re-identification. The study demonstrates that Ivanychuk’s historical prose functions as an effective instrument for comprehending the colonial past and contemporary challenges of cultural decolonization.