Displacement and Utopia: Volodymyr Vynnychenko's "Soniachna mashyna"

Abstract

Because of the close association between ideology and utopia, Volodymyr Vynnychenko's three-volume utopian novel "Soniachna mashyna" (1921-24, published in 1928), one of the most well known and discussed works in Ukrainian literature, has more often been approached as a product of his political and ideological preoccupations. While I do not disregard this, in my paper I propose a new reading from a largely neglected perspective of geographical displacement as a social, cultural and psychological phenomenon in an effort to bring fresh theoretical insight into the study of utopian writings. It maintains that Vynnychenko's utopia was largely inspired by his involuntary stay outside his homeland, in Germany, which led to a state of existential uncertainty, feelings of extreme uprootedness, and the desire to overcome this conflict with the reality of his day. The paper examines the writer's personal attitude to his displacement and uses the theoretical paradigm of utopia and nostalgia to argue that his utopia was aimed at a 'reconstruction' of his highly unstable identity by transcending the intolerable present and a projection of a better future.