Щоденники російсько-української війни: автобіографічне свідчення, колективна сповідь, медіаархів пам’яті

Романенко О. Щоденники російсько-української війни: автобіографічне свідчення, колективна сповідь, медіаархів пам’яті. Studia Ukrainica Posnaniensia. 2025. Т. XIII, № 1. С. 97–108.

The fundamental hypothesis of this article is how the diary genre in the creative practices of Ukrainian literature and – more broadly – culture has transformed under the influence of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the development of digital media, and changes in the politics of memory in the context of new commemorative practices. Memory studies, war studies, and studies devoted to studying the specificities of autobiographical narration provide intellectual support for this research.
The article states that in the conditions where new media are developing, the variability of the diary’s genre boundaries and the narrative’s character become relevant. Thanks to social media, in which daily posts function as a digital diary, the stream influences the narrative and extensive dialogue with followers. At the same time, the biographical story as a critical element of the narrative in the diary in the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war is transformed in few variants. They are novel-diary (Life after 16.30 by Oleksandr Tereshchenko), a diary itself and additional stories in the mass media around the diary (I transform... by Volodymyr Vakulenko), aphoristic Dictionary of war (a project of Ostap Slyvynskyi), intermedia media project One more day: diaries of war, a project of the website “Chitomo”). All these examples demonstrate how the memory of the war emphasizes the connection between the memory and the personal experience of the witnesses of the tragic events and becomes a new aesthetic and ethical experience for the recipients

The fundamental hypothesis of this article is how the diary genre in the creative practices of Ukrainian literature and – more broadly – culture has transformed under the influence of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the development of digital media, and changes in the politics of memory in the context of new commemorative practices. Memory studies, war studies, and studies devoted to studying the specificities of autobiographical narration provide intellectual support for this research. The article states that in the conditions where new media are developing, the variability of the diary’s genre boundaries and the narrative’s character become relevant. Thanks to social media, in which daily posts function as a digital diary, the stream influences the narrative and extensive dialogue with followers. At the same time, the biographical story as a critical element of the narrative in the diary in the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war is transformed in few variants. They are novel-diary (Life after 16.30 by Oleksandr Tereshchenko), a diary itself and additional stories in the mass media around the diary (I transform... by Volodymyr Vakulenko), aphoristic Dictionary of war (a project of Ostap Slyvynskyi), intermedia media project One more day: diaries of war, a project of the website “Chitomo”). All these examples demonstrate how the memory of the war emphasizes the connection between the memory and the personal experience of the witnesses of the tragic events and becomes a new aesthetic and ethical experience for the recipients.