Negotiating Ukraine: Nation, Historical Trauma, and the Politics of Memory in Arkadii Dragomoshenko’s 'Placement in Houses and Trees'

• In Event: The Enduring Legacy of Arkadii Dragomoshchenko: Scholarship, Photopoetics, and Artistic Influence

Abstract

This paper situates 'Placement in Houses and Trees' within the broader context of cultural and political repression and argues that Dragomoshenko’s work engages in an aesthetic and political dialogue with the suppressed Ukrainian cultural memory. The novel’s fragmented chronotopes and layered temporality evoke the disjointed reality of Ukrainian identity under Soviet rule. Through an analysis of its narrative structure, language choices, and portrayal of ideological violence, I argue that Dragomoshenko’s novel not only acknowledges but actively negotiates with Ukraine’s fraught historical landscape, positioning itself as a work of cultural and political urgency.

Author

• Yuliya Charnyshova, Yale U