From Old World Syndrome to History: Understanding the Past in Askold Melnyczuk’s Ambassador of the Dead

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dc.contributor.authorPoliukhovych, Olga
dc.contributor.authorFielding, Heather
dc.date.accessioned2020-01-15T14:31:48Z
dc.date.available2020-01-15T14:31:48Z
dc.date.issued2019
dc.description.abstractAskold Melnyczuk’s novel Ambassador of the Dead (2001) narrates the process through which a second-generation, assimilated American learns to comprehend the Ukrainian historical experience of his family and their generation. This article argues that the novel is centrally concerned with Nick’s learning process: as he begins to better understand his parents’ generation, he transforms his own identity. As a child, Nick is unable to see Ada — his friend’s mother, who is haunted by traumatic experiences — as anything other than an unchanging, incomprehensible enigma: "Old World Syndrome". Eventually, Nick comes to follow the example of Anton, a displaced Ukrainian who narrates a story-within-the-novel that returns Ada’s experiences to their historical and cultural contexts, while using magical realism to place her Ukrainian experience on a historical scale. Through Anton’s example, Nick learns how to see both Ada and his parents as complex historical actors in world history. Understanding the past then enables him to see himself as Ukrainian and claim an identity that is both Ukrainian and American.en_US
dc.identifier.citationPoliukhovych O. From Old World Syndrome to History: Understanding the Past in Askold Melnyczuk's Ambassador of the Dead [electronic resource] / Poliukhovych Olha, Fielding Heather // Kyiv-Mohyla Humanities Journal. - 2019. - Issue 6. - P. 91-113. - https://doi.org/10.18523/kmhj189037.2019-6.91-113en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://ekmair.ukma.edu.ua/handle/123456789/16891
dc.language.isoenuk_UA
dc.relation.sourceKyiv-Mohyla Humanities Journalen_US
dc.statusfirst publisheduk_UA
dc.subjectUkrainian-American novelen_US
dc.subjectAskold Melnyczuken_US
dc.subjectUkraineen_US
dc.subjectdisplacementen_US
dc.subjectpostmemoryen_US
dc.subjectidentityen_US
dc.subjectWorld War IIen_US
dc.subjectarticleen_US
dc.titleFrom Old World Syndrome to History: Understanding the Past in Askold Melnyczuk’s Ambassador of the Deaden_US
dc.typeArticleuk_UA
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No. 6 : The Ukrainian Intellectual Heritage in a Global Context
Кафедра літературознавства імені Володимира Моренця