BETWEEN SHELLING AND WRITING: WOMAN’S WAR XPERIENCE IN PERSONAL DIARES

Abstract

The article provides a comprehensive study of war narratives and the poetics of women's war diaries as a specific variety of contemporary ego-literature, based on the works of H. Horytska, V. Burlakova, and L. Dolyk. The focus of this scholarly inquiry is the records of two female service members and one civilian author, capturing liminal experiences during the Russian-Ukrainian war. The researchers analyzed the content and form of these notes through the lens of genre canons, identifying both traditional and newly acquired characteristics of the diary. It was established that the records of H. Horytska and L. Dolyk are grounded in classical genre requirements: daily documentation of events in the present tense, an effect of presence, mandatory dating, chronological and linear exposition, and firstperson narration. These texts are characterized by authenticity, sincerity, and a confessional tone. At the same time, certain deviations from the genre canon are observed: in H. Horytska’s work, the author's narration intertwines with the monologues of other characters, while L. Dolyk’s diary includes retrospective excursions. V. Burlakova’s diary is structured according to the principle of retrospective narration (nonlinear progression of events); such an inversive narrative strategy serves to provide a detailed account of events. According to the researchers, these elements indicate the hybrid nature and modernization of the contemporary diary. Special attention is paid to the representation of war in these women's diaries. In the works of H. Horytska and V. Burlakova, war appears not only as an external threat but as an immediate existential space, manifested through the macro-level of national news and combat operations. In contrast, in L. Dolyk’s diary, the events of «Grand» history, and the war in particular, are revealed and emphasized through the private «small» history of the family. The conclusions state that the diaries of H. Horytska, V. Burlakova, and L. Dolyk are vital ego-documents that successfully integrate private experience into the national historical context of the Russian-Ukrainian war.