THE MOTIVE OF ABANDONMENT AND MORAL TRAUMA IN THE ANTI-MILITARY DISCOURSE OF UKRAINIAN LITERATURE OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Abstract

This article analyzes the motif of abandonment and the phenomenon of moral trauma as key meaning-making categories in the anti-military discourse of 20th-century Ukrainian literature. The object of analysis is the artistic work of Western Ukrainian authors of the first third of the century, whose creativity was formed in the conditions of World War I and the prolonged colonial dependence of Ukrainian society. From this perspective, war appears not as a heroic historical episode, but as a profound existential crisis that causes the destruction of the moral, spiritual, and social foundations of human existence. The study proves that the motif of abandonment in anti-military prose takes on a multi-vector character. It encompasses not only the physical loss of home and native living space, but also the breakdown of family and social ties, as well as an acute sense of existential loneliness in the context of war violence. Particular emphasis is placed on the image of the «little man» – the soldier, the peasant, the woman, the civilian population – who find themselves hostages to the absurdity of war and imperial interests and gradually lose both external and internal support. Moral trauma is understood as a direct consequence of the forced involvement of individuals in war, participation in acts of violence, or helpless contemplation of the destruction of human life. Based on the works of Marko Cheremshyna, Olha Kobylianska, and Osyp Turianskyi, the article traces how artistic texts capture the extreme states of human existence, moral disorientation, and, at the same time, attempts to preserve humanity in conditions of radical dehumanization. It is argued that the motifs of abandonment and moral trauma perform not only a figurative and expressive function in anti-military discourse, but also a conceptual one, forming a clearly articulated humanistic protest against war as an anti-human phenomenon. Ukrainian anti-military prose of the 20th century emerges as an important form of spiritual resistance to violence and an artistic way of comprehending national and universal tragedy.