Troverdighet, detaljer og latter: Svetlana Aleksijevitsjs Krigen har intet kvinnelig ansikt som traumebearbeidelse

Abstract

In this Master’s thesis in Russian literature, I explore Svetlana Alexievich’s first book The Unwomanly Face of War. The main aim of this thesis is to examine war literature that challenges totalitarian official narratives of war, in an attempt to highlight the importance of testimonies from those who have experienced the atrocities of war. I combine critical close reading with theoretical and methodological ideas from history, philosophy and psychology in a comprehensive analysis of Alexievich’s The Unwomanly Face of War. Throughout the thesis I discuss how the book can be read as a means of processing trauma and traumatic experiences, primarily with reference to the people behind the many voices in the book, but also with reference to Alexievich (as the implied author). I focus on three literary devices, the text quality «credibility», and the motives «details» and «laughter», drawing on Kate McLoughlin’s Authoring War: The Literary Representation of War from the Iliad to Iraq (2011). I further apply literary trauma theory and Marianne Hirsch’s term postmemory. I also discuss the literary genre of testimony, and how the specific generic features of the book transpire in the three literary devices I have singled out for close study. My study is situated in the broader field of war literature, which I discuss together with this literature’s significance for the general/public dissemination of history. The thesis also draws parallels to the current situation in Russia, focusing on the Kremlin’s use of a distorted World War II narrative to legitimise its military and political actions, especially in the ongoing war of aggression and full-scale invasion of Ukraine.