Memory, Identity, and Belonging in Yuriy Tarnawsky’s Autobiographical Novel Warm Arctic Nights

The paper deals with memory, identity, and belonging issues in the autobiographical novel Warm Arctic Nights by a distinguished Ukrainian American writer, Yuriy Tarnawsky. The novel shares the story of a youth whose life was disrupted by the turmoil of World War II in the Polish-Ukrainian borderland...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inHypercultura (București. Online) no. 12; pp. 1 - 12
Main Author Ostapchuk, Tetyana
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hyperion University 2023
Universitatea Hyperion
Subjects
American Literature
Asylum, Refugees, Migration as Policy-fields
Inter-Ethnic Relations
Novel
Ukrainian Literature
memory
border crossing
Ukrainian migrants
identity
autobiography
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Summary:The paper deals with memory, identity, and belonging issues in the autobiographical novel Warm Arctic Nights by a distinguished Ukrainian American writer, Yuriy Tarnawsky. The novel shares the story of a youth whose life was disrupted by the turmoil of World War II in the Polish-Ukrainian borderlands. The analysis aims to establish a connection between identity formation through narration and changing functions of the borders, from reliable and well-protected toward violated and porous ones. Thus, the novel is re-read through the analytical lenses of identity and border poetics. The analysis stems from the concepts of “biographical me” and “identity set” suggested by Neil MacKinnon and David Heise (2010). The paper revises the personal and collective identities of the protagonist, images of Others, and topographical, symbolic, and epistemological borders inside and outside the text. The author of the paper places Ukrainian migrants’ experience of trauma, loss, and displacement into a broader context of border crossings in times of war.
ISSN:2285-2115
2559-2025