UKRAINIAN FICTION OF WARTIME: THEMATIC AND GENRE REPERTOIRE AND CREATIVE STRATEGIES

Abstract

The article analyzes the genre and stylistic features of contemporary Ukrainian literature of wartime, outlining its leading trends and artistic strategies. It emphasizes that the key feature of the latest war prose is its documentary character and sincerity of narration. This is обусловлено the active participation in the literary process of direct witnesses and participants of the war: servicemen and servicewomen, volunteers, medics, and journalists. It is underlined that the combination of personal experience with the collective dimension of memory forms a new model of artistic thinking in which testimony becomes an important ethical and aesthetic category.
The genre diversity of contemporary war prose is examined. Alongside traditional forms (novel, novella, short story), diary prose, essays, reportage, memoirs, and documentary-fiction texts are actively developing. The specificity of hybrid genre models is identified, in which elements of fictional narrative, publicistic writing, and personal testimony are synthesized. Particular attention is paid to documentary-fiction prose as a form that combines reportage, diary recording of events, and literary interpretation, creating the effect of direct presence and historical authenticity.
A separate aspect of the study concerns the genre renewal of contemporary war poetry. The transformation of traditional lyrical forms and the emergence of new ways of representing traumatic experience are considered, including free verse, diary poetry, epistolary poetry, and poetry-testimony. The role of wartime poetic anthologies as a consolidating and memorial phenomenon is highlighted, as they capture the emotional state of the era and shape a collective portrait of a generation.
The development of children’s and young adult literature about the war, its therapeutic potential, and its thematic dominants (the experience of evacuation, loss, life under occupation, and adaptation to new conditions) are also explored. The article outlines creative strategies of wartime literature, particularly the development of visual and graphic narratives, metaphorization, and intermediality as ways of expanding artistic expression. It is concluded that contemporary Ukrainian wartime literature emerges as a multidimensional cultural phenomenon that not only reflects the realities of war but also shapes the space of national memory and identity.