У статті розглянуто роман сучасного українського письменника
В. Лиса «Країна гіркої ніжності» в контексті пошуків індивідуальної та національної ідентичності, національної пам'яті, а також
історії України ХХ ст. Під час аналізу використано студії з літературознавства, педагогіки, соціології та психології Ф. Арієса, Р. Шаффера, Е. Кей, П. Нора, К. Сеґєт та ін. Встановлено, що український
письменник, описуючи долі трьох жінок (бабусі, дочки й онуки) на фоні
бурхливої української історії минулого століття, відновлює втрачену
пам'ять як індивідуальну, так і колективну.
The paper offers an attempt to look at the “The Land of Bitter Tenderness” by contemporary
Ukrainian writer Volodymyr Lys in the context of the search for individual and national
identity, national memory, as well as the history of the 20th century Ukraine. In the analyzed
work, the writer uses the image of a child, which, in the researcher’s opinion, is a quite
rare phenomenon in Ukrainian literature. Th is technique was used by the writer in order to
capture the reader’s attention and make him penetrate the text of the novel deeper. Thus, the
author informs the reader that the main idea of the work is extremely important because the
average person is accustomed to paying more attention to children. On occasion, the writer
points out that manipulating a child’s memory was the easiest way for the Bolsheviks in their
criminal social experiment. The writer emphasizes that the effects of ‘brainwashing’ may be
prevented, but it is impossible to cure the trauma left by this process in the soul of a person.
Analyzing the mentioned novel, the author of the paper refers to the works in the fields of
literary studies, pedagogy, sociology, and psychology, written by Philip Aries, Rudolf Schaffer,
Ellen Kay, Pierre Nora, Katarzyna Segiet, and others.
The Ukrainian writer, describing the fate of three women (grandmother, daughter, and
granddaughter), presented against the backdrop of the tumultuous Ukrainian history of
the last century, is trying to restore the lost memory, both individual and collective, in order
to secure the process of building Ukrainian national identity. The writer draws attention
to the fact that during almost all the 20th century not only the Ukrainian nation but also
Ukrainian history has been the subject of constant Bolshevik manipulation and fraud. He
emphasizes that the prerequisite for building a unified Ukrainian identity is the attempt to
restore individual and collective memory in Ukrainians, including the memory of history.
