Witnesses, Deniers and Bourgeois Troublemakers. The Holodomor and Ukrainian-Canadian Collaboration in Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch’s Winterkill (2022)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21409276 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mateusz Świetlicki (0000-0001-7009-3837, University of Wrocław, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 55 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 747-763 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Children s Literature in Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0045-6713 • E-ISSN: 1573-1693 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s10583-023-09526-y |
| OpenAlex | W4327693007 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 9 |
The article examines Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch’s Winterkill (2022), a recent Holodomor middle-grade historical novel issued by Scholastic, and showcases that Skrypuch explores the implicated position of North Americans – especially Soviet collaborators and journalists – in the context of the famine and Stalin’s collectivization. Most notably, Winterkill brings attention to the actions of Rhea Clyman, a Jewish-Canadian journalist who wrote factual articles about the situation in the Soviet Union but until the mid-2010s was largely forgotten. In the first part of the article, the author briefly introduces the historical background and points to the recent increase of Holodomor-themed Anglophone books. Then, close reading Winterkill , they argue that many characters in the novel, including the ones based on Clyman and Alice, a Ukrainian Canadian girl she met in Kharkiv in 1932, emerge as what Michael Rothberg has called “implicated subjects.” The article demonstrates that at first the foreigners in the novel are enchanted with Stalinism, accept its benefits, and their actions – directly and indirectly – contribute to the destruction of the Ukrainian countryside. Winterkill showcases both the importance of recognizing one’s implication and sharing the testimony of the Holodomor witnesses, hence keeping the memory of the famine and its victims alive
Bourgeoisie · Context (archaeology) · Famine · Linguistics · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Reading (process) · Sociology · Ukrainian · Canadian Identity and History · History · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Philosophy · Soviet and Russian History
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |