Next-Generation Memory and Ukrainian Canadian Children’s Historical Fiction. The Seeds of Memory by Mateusz Świetlicki (review)

Reviewed by: Next-Generation Memory and Ukrainian Canadian Children’s Historical Fiction. The Seeds of Memory by Mateusz Świetlicki Lindsay Myers NEXT-GENERATION MEMORY AND UKRAINIAN CANADIAN CHILDREN’S HISTORICAL FICTION. The Seeds of Memory By Mateusz Świetlicki. Series: Children’s Literature and Culture. Routledge, 2023, 222 pages. ISBN: 978-1-032-43562-6 Mateusz Świetlicki’s Next-Generation Memory is the first cross-sectional monograph dedicated to the study of Anglophone Ukrainian Canadian children’s historical fiction. The book, which tracks the experiences of Ukrainian immigrants to Canada over the course of the twentieth century, explores the manner in which their individual and collective struggles have been depicted by contemporary Ukrainian Canadian authors. It argues that historical books for children have played a vital role in the transmission and maintenance of Ukrainian Canadian cultural memory, and it explores the ongoing influence of these texts in twenty-first century, transcultural Canada. The book’s narrow focus does not mean, however, that it will only be of interest to members of the Ukrainian Canadian diaspora, or indeed to their Ukrainian or Canadian com-patriots. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has placed Ukraine at the frontline of a global struggle between democracy and authoritarianism, and the short- and long-term damage that prejudice and misinformation have on international relations has never been more apparent. Świetlicki’s study is divided into five chapters; the first three focus on contemporary Ukrainian Canadian narratives that depict the experiences of the first two waves of Ukrainian immigrants to Canada, while the final two examine a selection of historical novels about the Second World War, which have been written by Canadian authors who are not Ukrainian Canadian but whose ancestors come from Ukraine. As it is impossible to understand the books analyzed in each chapter without possessing a basic knowledge of the history of Ukrainian immigration to Canada, the introduction provides the reader with this contextual overview. It also situates Świetlicki’s methodological approach within the broader interdisciplinary fields of memory studies, literary criticism, and multiculturalism, and relates Świetlicki’s research to that carried out by Marianne Hirsch, Alison Landsberg and Anastasia Ulanowicz, Mavis Reimer, Clare Bradford, Lydia Kokkola, and Miriam Richter. As a scholar who has always had a particular research interest in the relationship between children’s literature and national identity but whose knowledge of Ukrainian history and politics is extremely limited, I found this introduction particularly useful. The three central chronotypes in contemporary Ukrainian Canadian mnemonic discourse are the pioneer experience, the Holodomor (the Great Famine of 1932–1933), and the Second World War. The collective identity of contemporary Ukrainian Canadians has, however, also been shaped by the internment of 8,579 Austro-Hungarian immigrants (mostly Ukrainian) in [End Page 70] twenty-four labor camps in Canada during the First World War, the existence of which was not acknowledged by Canada until the late 1990s. Chapters 1, 2, and 4 focus on the Pioneer experience, the Holodomor, and the Second World War, respectively while chapter 2 explores the reasons behind the decades-long absence of the internment from Canadian and Russian history. Chapter 3, meanwhile, explores the role that gender identities and gender relations have played in the intergenerational transmission of Ukrainian customs and values in Canada, and analyzes a selection of contemporary Ukrainian Canadian works for children that both depict and challenge traditional gender stereotypes. Świetlicki’s study illustrates the extent to which the transnational consequences of the two world wars and the Cold War, which followed them, are being exacerbated by Russian President Vladimir Putin and how outrageous are his claims that Ukraine is in need of de-Nazification. The only criticism I would have of the study is that it is sometimes hard as a reader unfamiliar with the history of the Ukrainian Canadian diaspora to follow the arguments. Several of the children’s books that appear in one chapter also appear in another, and it would have been helpful to have had an idea of the content of each of these works at the outset. Overall, however, I would heartily recommend this book not just to scholars and educators but also to the wider public. It is a...

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