Donbas War Prose as a Medium of Family Memory: (Dis)continuity and Resilience in Mondegreen and Amadoka

This chapter investigates the aspects of (dis)continuity and resilience in Ukrainian war prose since 2014. The novels Mondegreen: Songs about Death and Love (2019) by Volodymyr Rafeyenko and Amadoka (2020) by Sofia Andrukhovych draw parallels between the current Russian–Ukrainian war and past atrocities, such as Soviet terror and the Holocaust. Family memories prefigurate one’s self-identification and can correct grand narratives (Erll 2011; Hirsch 2002, 2012). The stories of the Habinsky and the Kryvodyak families in Mondegreen and Amadoka represent alternative perspectives on victims, perpetrators, and “implicated subjects” (Rothberg 2019). Simultaneously, such stories contribute to the “small acts of repair” (Hirsch and Spitzer 2022). Although it is difficult to overcome (dis)continuity and (dis)belonging, awareness and the ability to speak about uncomfortable experiences are important aspects of developing resilience because these are the first steps to regaining agency.