Discourse of war in Oleksa Stefanovych’s poetry

Abstract

The is article focuses on the military topics and poetics in the patriotic and religious poetry of Oleksa Stefanovych (1899—1970), one of the most interesting Ukrainian diaspora writers. The question of his personal war experience remains open, but the topic of war and the struggle for independence is an important element of his poetry. The e material for analysis is taken from his Apocalyptic cycle “The World’s End” (“Kinetssvitnie”) inspired by the events of the WWII, from his patriotic poems dedicated to the heroes of Kruty and Oleh Olzhych, and from the fragments of his unfinished poetic works on the tragic events of Bazar (“Do Bazaru”) and Brody (“Do Brodiv”). Based on Aleida Assman’s descriptions concerning the peculiarities of memory representations in literature, the author demonstrates the main points of Stefanovych’s creative strategy. It is focused on the sacralization and mythologization of real places, figures, and events connected with the struggle for Ukrainian statehood in the early 20th century and the participation of Ukrainians in the events of the WWII.
 Stefanovych sacralizes space and time by putting the real tragedies of Ukrainian history into the Apocalyptic context and interweaving the motifs of martyrdom and heroism. In his poetic universe the sites of historical events become the places of worship, memory or trauma tightly connected with the paradoxical experience of military defeat that turned to be the moral victory. The typical stylistic traits of Stefanovych’s poetry are defined as the balance between the high symbolism and accuracy of naturalistic details, the extreme level of dramatic tension and exact moral accents.