SPATIAL MODELS IN UKRAINIAN RETRO-DETECTIVE LITERATURE OF THE EARLY 21ST CENTURY: A POSTCOLONIAL ASPECT (BASED ON THE PROSE OF BOGDAN KOLOMIYCHUK AND ANDRIY KOKOTYUKHA)

Abstract

In the colonial and anti-colonial discourses of the 19th–20th centuries, mental mapping became a form of symbolic embodiment in space. Metropolitan texts tried to present the world as clearly hierarchical, in which the main role was assigned to the imperial “center”. In the counter-discursive narrative, they sought to overturn this model, opposing the imperial capital with the self-sufficiency of peripheral territories. Detective works of the late 19th century, represented by the texts of Arthur Conan Doyle, present a colonial model of the world, where the victory over criminal activity, which often begins in overseas colonial possessions, takes place right in the heart of the empire. On the other hand, modern detective novels (novels by Abir Mukherjee) transform the metropolitan spatial hierarchy, focusing on the self-sufficiency of the periphery and the loss of authority of the center.
The Ukrainian detective novel of the early 21st century offers a postcolonial strategy for rethinking the national experience of relations with the Austro-Hungarian Empire on the eve of World War I. The texts of Andriy Kokotyukha and Bogdan Kolomiychuk appear as a vivid form of retro-detective, which, in addition to investigating a criminal history, conveys the spirit of the era and the culture of everyday life of a certain historical era. The works of Ukrainian writers demonstrate immersion in the space of Lviv, meticulously describing the city’s topography, architecture, hotels, and restaurants, which turns into a symbolic territory with a pronounced national historical meaning.
In the detective retro-novels of Bogdan Kolomiychuk, the metropolitan mapping of the map of Europe is deconstructed, the peripheral space of Galicia actually appears as a place, where legality and justice prevail, unlike Vienna. The writer manages to build a linear spatial model, in which Lviv acquires features of uniqueness and fullness alongside the imperial capitals of the early 20th century.