Aging with a War: Ukrainian Poets Mark Time

• In Event: Fearing and Embracing Aging

Abstract

“To grow old from the news…” writes Halyna Kruk in 2022. The military conflict first broke out in Donbas over a decade ago, and Kruk’s generation of Ukrainians has come of age with war. This presentation will consider how poets have observed war marking, and disrupting, time. In some poems, war has hastened the aging process, forcing young people to serve their country before they have finished school, or causing premature physical ailments; for others, war compels those ready for retirement to assume a second youth.

Author

• Amelia Glaser, UC San Diego