Writing about war-online: fiction vs nonfiction

Abstract

Using comparative, typological, and hermeneutical methods, the article examines
the characteristics of various genres in contemporary Ukrainian literature addressing the Russian-Ukrainian war in the information age, to determine the interaction between fictional and non-fictional genres. The analysis concludes that each of the examined books exhibits an aspiration for continuity, contrasting with the ephemeral nature of the continuous online information flow. This aspiration is realized in different ways: institutionally in A. Kokotiukha’s novel The Timer of War..., through discrete composition in books like Fierce February 2022... by D. Bura and Y. Podobna, and The Dictionary of War by O. Slyvynskyi, or through the fairy tale narrative of The Cat, the Rooster and the Cupboard by O. Mykhed. Additionally, both fiction and non-fiction genres effectively utilize their respective strengths and draw from the same source, namely the topos of pain. Writing about war not only truthfully informs about real events but also empowers the fight against existential adversaries, ultimately affirming life, as V. Frankl suggests.