The concept of nostalgia in Vasyl Makhno’s prose (based on the short story collection “The House in Baiting Hollow”)

Abstract

Migration literature typically addresses issues of self-identification, the loss and rediscovery of home, the reinterpretation of the past, and the existential search for foundations on which to build the future. In texts that engage with the experience of migration, nostalgia acquires particular significance: it functions not only as a motif but also as a way of rethinking history, a basis for constructing new identity, and a “lifebuoy” that provides emotional stability for the migrant. The aim of this article is to analyze how nostalgia functions in Vasyl Makhno’s short story collection “The House in Baiting Hollow” in the context of migration experience, trauma, and the reconfiguration of identity. The relevance is determined by the growing role of migration experience in contemporary Ukrainian literature and, consequently, the need to understand nostalgia as one of the key affective mechanisms of experiencing the loss of home and creating a new identity. Despite active research into nostalgia in psychology, its functioning in contemporary Ukrainian prose remains insufficiently studied. Therefore, this article aims to demonstrate how nostalgia functions as a narrative device and its influence on the formation of characters’ identities. The subject of the study is the concept of nostalgia in the collection “The House in Beiting Hollow”. Narrative, hermeneutic, and figurative analysis methods were used, as well as an interdisciplinary approach involving concepts from the fields of psychology and memory studies. It has been established that nostalgia in the collection functions not only as a motif, but also as a coping strategy and a semantic dominant of the artistic world. The thematic division into “Chortkiv” and “New York” stories makes it possible to distinguish different models of its functioning: in texts related to Chortkiv, in addition to its emotional-regulatory function, it performs the existential function of comprehending history; in the “New York” stories, it focuses on the image of home and serves as a mechanism for strengthening social ties and emotional regulation in the context of emigration and the creation of a new identity. Special attention is paid to anticipatory nostalgia as a future-oriented practice of “savoring” the moment. The scientific novelty lies in interpreting nostalgia as a narrative mechanism and distinguishing its models within contemporary Ukrainian migration prose.