The German Topos of Ukraine as a Lost Homeland: Ukrainian Topography in the Poem "Flight Into Kyiv" by Hans-Ulrich Treichel
Loading...
Date
2018
Authors
Voloshchuk, Ievgeniia
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The article focuses on the cartographic enactment of the topos of Ukraine as a lost
homeland in contemporary German literary discourse on migration, and in particular
in the body of work that conveys the voices of the “second generation” - children
of the German (post-)war migration. The article analyses by way of an illustrative
example Hans-Ulrich Treichel’s poem “Flight into Kyiv”, in which we find reflected the
autobiographical theme of the (re)construction of the lost homeland of his father, a
Volyn German who fled to Germany during the Second World War to escape reprisals of
the Soviet army. The main object of research are the mental maps of Ukrainian space,
which largely define the way Ukraine is represented both in contemporary German
social discourse and in modern German literature. A textual analysis of the poem
allows us to discern how the resource of the Western European construct of Eastern
Europe is instrumentalized and aesthetically arranged by German (post)migration
perception to institutionalize the image of Ukraine as a “lost homeland”.
Description
Keywords
mental maps, construct of Eastern Europe, phantom borders, homeland, Ukraine, article
Citation
Voloshchuk I. The German Topos of Ukraine as a Lost Homeland: Ukrainian Topography in the Poem "Flight Into Kyiv" by Hans-Ulrich Treichel / Ievgeniia Voloshchuk // Kyiv-Mohyla Humanities Journal. - 2018. - No. 5 : Cross-Cultural Connections and Displacement in Ukraine and Beyond. - P. 171-181.