A Reading of Alexander Motyl’s Fall River Through the Lenses of Bordermemories

Tetiana Ostapchuk

doi:10.18523/kmhj150389.2018-5.83-95

Abstract

This paper examines the concepts of borderlands, borderscapes, and bordermemories as cultural discursive practices that have been extensively presented and analyzed in an increasing number of theoretical works in Border Studies. Contemporary American Ukrainian writers have made attempts to introduce their hybrid experience and include it into American culture. One of them is Alexander J. Motyl, whose novel Fall River (2014) is analyzed as an example of border writing. The novel is based on the author’s narrative memory, rooted in his mother’s stories about Ukraine and their family members’ crossings of borders in the interwar period and belonging to two cultures, Ukrainian and American, that shaped their identities.

Highlights

This paper examines the concepts of borderlands, borderscapes, and bordermemories as cultural discursive practices that have been extensively presented and analyzed in an increasing number of theoretical works in Border Studies
The website Bordermemories proclaims that, “this multidisciplinary project examines the complexities of borders from the perspective of memory politics.” 6 The interrelations between borders as cultural concepts and memories are used by Tatiana Zhurzhenko to analyze two borderlands cities, Trieste and Lviv
In Fall River Motyl literally embarks to witness in place of his dead ancestors, though truth, as he states at the very beginning, is no longer important because narrating memories about trauma transforms his personal voice into the collective voice of an entire group of American Ukrainians

Summary

Through the Lenses of Bordermemories

The Ukrainian national minority in the US is considered to be a relatively young one. The first novels of such well-know American Ukrainian authors as Askold Melnyczuk (What Is Told, 1994; Ambassador of the Dead, 2001; House of Widows, 2008), Irene Zabytko (The Sky Unwashed, 2000; When Luba Leaves Home, 2003), Daniel Hryhorczuk (Caught in the Current, 2013), Orest Stelmach (The Boy From Reactor 4, 2013; The Boy Who Stole from the Dead, 2014; The Boy Who Glowed in the Dark, 2014; The Altar Girl, 2015), and Michael Naydan (Seven Signs of the Lion, 2016) are all connected with their experience of living in-between two cultures, often inspired by their family narratives The settings of their novels are located at the crossroads of America and Ukraine.

Border Zones

Memories as Borders

Conclusion