« 2023. # 4 (172)

The Ethnology Notebooks. 2023. № 4 (172), 1111—1120

UDK 801.81 (477.82) “1940/1960”

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/nz2023.04.1111

PLACES OF MEMORY IN FOLKLORE NARRATIVES ABOUT THE EVENTS OF THE 1940s—1960s. OF XX CENTURY (BASED ON MATERIALS FROM VOLYN POLISSYA REGION)

DEMEDYUK Мaryna

  • ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4415-002X
  • Candidate of Philology Sciences (= Ph.D. in Philology),
  • Senior Researcher at the Institute of Ethnology
  • of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine,
  • Department of Folkloristics,
  • 15, Svobody Avenue, 79000, Lviv, Ukraine,
  • Contacts: e-mail: mdemedyuk@gmail.com; tel.: 0976105957

Abstract. Folklore narratives from Volyn Polissia are explored through the prism of P. Nora’s conceptoin of memorial spaces («lieux de mйmoire»). It was found that the memory of the World War II underwent transformations under the influence of historical features (Soviet occupation, restoration of independence of Ukraine, Russian-Ukrainian war).

The method of the proposed investigation is the study of the specificity and transformation of «lieux de mйmoire» in the oral traditional prose of Volyn Polissia.

Folklore narratives recorded by the author during her expeditions in 2018—2022 were chosen as the object of research.

The subject is a reflection in texts events related to the spaces of memory of the World War II.

 The methodological basis of the work is the principles of objectivity and historicism of folklore, and the main methods are structural-typological, the method of conceptual analysis. The author also used the work experience of autobiographical narratives study in the world and Ukrainian scientific discourse.

The main blocks of plots are centered around a certain «lieux de mйmoire», the presence of which is possible for their reactualization. Thus, rebel graves-mounds (regardless of whether they were restored in the days of Independence or information about them is preserved only in the memory of storytellers) are important part of the space of modern villages and towns. Steles in memory of fallen UPA troops become modern «spaces of memory», which make it possible to talk about the fighters for Ukraine openly, to honor them on the occasion of certain holidays, and the names on the steles help to remember and in a certain way legitimize the narratives about the insurgent movement in Volyn Polissia. It turned out that the key events of the Second World War are etched in the memory in a significant way and because they are tied to a certain place.

The field becomes the place with which stories about the organization of the insurgent movement, training and gathering of insurgents are connected. In addition, the attempt of the Soviet authorities to give this space a new ideologically verified sound could not erase its original meaning associated with the struggle of the UPA.

Based on the analysis of the texts, it was found that in the minds of the narrators, a is identified with the entire stage of the struggle of the insurgents against the Nazi and Soviet occupations.

Keywords: folklore text, narratives, World War II, national liberation struggle, Volyn, place of memory.

Received 19.05.2023

REFERENCES

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