Displacement and Utopia: Volodymyr Vynnychenko's Soniachna mashyna

Author: Soroka, Mykola Iv.

Source: The Slavonic and East European Review, Volume 85, Number 3, 1 July 2007 , pp. 441-461(21)

Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association

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Abstract:

Because of the close association between ideology and utopia, Volodymyr Vynnychenko's three-volume utopian novel Soniachna mashyna (1921-24, published in 1928), one of the most well known and discussed works in Ukrainian literature, has more often been approached as a product of his political and ideological preoccupations. While I do not disregard this, in my paper I propose a new reading from a largely neglected perspective of geographical displacement as a social, cultural and psychological phenomenon in an effort to bring fresh theoretical insight into the study of utopian writings. It maintains that Vynnychenko's utopia was largely inspired by his involuntary stay outside his homeland, in Germany, which led to a state of existential uncertainty, feelings of extreme uprootedness, and the desire to overcome this conflict with the reality of his day. The paper examines the writer's personal attitude to his displacement and uses the theoretical paradigm of utopia and nostalgia to argue that his utopia was aimed at a `reconstruction' of his highly unstable identity by transcending the intolerable present and a projection of a better future.

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Toronto

Publication date: 2007-07-01

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The Review is the oldest British journal in the field, having been in existence since 1922. Edited and managed by the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, it covers not only the modern and medieval languages and literatures of the Slavonic and East European area, but also history, culture, and political studies.