Literary CombiNation: Memory and Space in Contemporary Ukrainian Anthologies

Abstract

Finding itself at the end of the twentieth century in a situation of post-totalitarianism, post-colonialism and postmodernism, Ukrainian literature faced the problem of finding its own identity. Genres dedicated to the representation of literature, including the increasingly popular genre of anthology, were among the foremost means of creating an image of the literature in its totality. From the end of the 1990s onward, the search for a usable tradition was accompanied by a sense of obligation to highlight one’s own modernity, delimit its periods and define its constitutive properties. The national literature has faced the problem taking into account the heritage of totalitarianism and colonialism, which involves coming to terms with its internal space as a multilingual one. On the other hand, the space of literature has extended over the state border, promising to create a new homogeneity of literature and overcoming the differences between domestic and diaspora literature.