Working Through the Holodomor Discursively: Memory, Trauma and the Representation of Ukrainian Genocide Victims from the 1950s until the Early Twenty-First Century

Abstract

The Ukrainian Holodomor of 1932-33 resulted in the deaths of millions of people from starvation, execution and deportation to labour camps, which unsettled the foundations of Ukrainian culture and society. Those who survived were further divided and displaced by the events of World War II, during which a large proportion of the peasantry endured forced labour in Germany. Those who avoided repatriation to the Soviet Union at the end of the War formed diaspora communities in various parts of the West, where a small number gave testimony about their experiences of the Holodomor. This thesis examines testimonial literature in Ukrainian diaspora communities to understand how representations of victims have evolved from the 1950s to the twenty first century, and what this evolution can tell us about a collective trauma process. Drawing on theories from the fields of memory, literary, and trauma studies, the thesis closely analyses five key texts in Holodomor survivor literature. The findings indicate that intertextuality, or rather, the ways in which survivors draw on existing memories, narratives and myths in their attempts to make sense of traumatic experiences, is central to the process of working through trauma. Meanwhile, interruptions to this process, for example, in the form of memory laws, state-enforced silence, and other interventions, can slow or halt the process, and communities can remain trapped within a pattern of acting out trauma. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the ways in which nations can work through trauma discursively and poses questions for further research.