Existent essence of experimental modern Ukrainian prose: «DNK» (Serhiy Zhadan, Yuriy Vynnychuk, Irena Karрa, Fozzi, Andriy Kokotyukha, Volodymyr Rafaenko and Max Kidruk)

One of the characteristic features of modern Ukrainian literature is its innovative exploration at all levels such as genre-thematic, linguistic-stylistic, etc. The subject of this scientific investigation is an experimental project (family saga, novel in short stories) «DNК», the authors of which are seven original but different authors – Sergei Zhadan, Yuri Vynnychuk, Irena Karpa, Fozzy, Andrei Kokotyukha, Vladimir Rafaenko and Max Kidruk. The object of our study is the genre-style and ideological-thematic characteristics of each novel and their ideological and semantic integrity. Given the idiosyncrasy of each of the authors, we made a figurative analysis of the characters which includes their worldview, behavior, dreams and language. In the course of the research we can state that the chronotope of events, language, stylistic and genre peculiarities are all aimed at comprehensive disclosure of the life of Ukraine and Ukrainians at the peaks of history. It is the anthropological principle of analysis of these works that should be the starting point today and now, when not only our country, but humanity in general is in a situation of humanitarian catastrophe. The problem of all times and peoples is the unwillingness to listen to the artistic word, to the efforts of artists (intuitive, subconscious, and sometimes specifically oriented) to force their contemporaries to think about specific values and priorities, personal and national, taking into account the experience of past generations. We are convinced that the emergence of «DNК» is due to such a specific existential need, that is, the need for ueverybody to rethink the lessons of history with the necessary conclusions.

The Female Face of the Big Book (Women – Winners of the National Literary Prize BB)

The article studies the gender composition of the Big Book award winners. It is shown what place among the awarded authors and laureates is occupied by women authors and their works. All award-winning works created by women are analyzed. The main common characteristic features of these works are revealed: the creation of a fullfledged biography of one person and/or a family saga against the background of a detailed historical picture of the corresponding era. An attempt is made to determine the place (“ecological niche”) occupied by the “serious” prose of women authors in contemporary literary process.

ERICO VERISSIMO E PEPETELA: DIFERENTES TRAJETÓRIAS LITERÁRIAS QUE CONVERGEM

The literary projects of the novelists Erico Verissimo and Artur Carlos Maurício Pestana dos Santos, known as Pepetela, affiliate themselves with the tradition of social intervention literature, in the same manner as it was configured in the 20th century, as they comprise an ethical project faithful to their world views and their social and human commitments, which isintensified by the aesthetic project that accompanies it. In this sense, there are ideological and aesthetic affinities between the two novelists with the confluence, on the ideological plane, of the humanist ideology and the social and human commitment that both present in their literary projects, and on the aesthetic plane, of the similarity between the narrative structures of their founding novels (the trilogy O tempo e o vento, by Erico Verissimo, and Yaka and Lueji, by Pepetela), due to the fact that the two writers use common themes and narrative strategies, such as the family saga, metafiction, counterpoint narrative technique and polyphony. Thus, we believe that the ideological affinity between Pepetela and Erico Verissimo led the Angolan writer to incorporate into his literary project some thematic and formal elements used by the Brazilian, according to the concept of intertextuality by Julia Kristeva (1974), who conceives the writing of a literary text as a reading of the preceding corpus. However, the relationship between them is based not only on the similarity in their common traits, but also on the differences that exist between their works and between their literary projects.

Returning to the Past: The Germans as a Historical Trauma in Contemporary Czech Prose

This study describes reflections of wartime and postwar historical trauma in contemporary Czech prose, taking into account the issues surrounding Central Europe, which entirely overlap with the traditional confrontation between the Czechs and Germans. It also includes the changing reflections on Germany and the Germans, the Second World War and the subsequent expulsion found in the prose work of the new millennium, the unifying topic being deemed to be the issue of the ambiguous national identification of the protagonists, the detabooization of previously hushed-up subjects and the subject of the Holocaust, particularly in the family saga genre. It also takes into account groups of texts focusing on reflections of anti-German resistance activities, both in the genre of the novel (with detective elements) and in output on the boundaries between fiction and factographic prose.

Broken Narratives, Multiple Truths

Against the background of the decades-long international relations dispute over Japan’s wartime military “comfort women” system, this article explores one of the scant literary representations of comfort women in Japanese literature. Through a close reading of Yū Miri’s Hachigatsu no hate (The End of August, 2004), a family saga written by a female author of Korean descent, the article explores how the novel emerged from, participates in, and critically positions itself with respect to the ongoing ideological battles over war histor(iograph)y. Set mostly in colonial Korea, The End of August presents a challenge to historical revisionism’s desire for a single, document-based narrative, for Yū incorporates a multitude of oral accounts of personally experienced history into a nonlinear, highly fragmented narration. Zooming in on an episode in which a young Korean girl is tricked into sexual slavery, The End of August is read against a number of discursive paradigms that govern the debate on comfort women both in Korea and Japan. The article argues that, by drawing on postcolonial ways of understanding history, memory, and trauma, The End of August gives voice to those whose stories previously went unheard, thus allowing for a reading as a statement against the shelving of inconvenient pasts.

The Naismith Stratagem

This chapter critically considers Genevieve Cogman’s Vorkosigan sourcebook for Steve Jackson Games’ tabletop Generic Universal Roleplaying System (GURPS). It examines how the sourcebook reframes Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga as an immersive environment through six key processes employed typically in TRPG adaptation: distillation, accentual emphasis, nomenclatural qualification, statistical quantification, ludic systematisation, and fictional gazetteering. The chapter assesses how the adaptation balances the requirements of the GURPS ruleset with the need to facilitate immersion in an authentic version of the saga, and analyses how Cogman preserves and adapts the novels to promote and sustain imaginative, immersive gameplay faithful to the saga’s structural, narrative, and shifting intergeneric qualities. The chapter further shows how the game allows players to immerse themselves in the saga; conceive, develop and enhance character types from the novels; and experience plots and story structures reflecting the unique tenor of Bujold’s work. In its emphases, the game reveals what it assumes to be the most appealing aspects of the books: its characterisation, relationships, locations, and the emotional immersion central to Bujold’s treatment of the science fictional family saga.