Homo pacificus in the poetry of Victoria Amelina (based on the poetry book Testimonies)

Abstract

With the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the russian aggressor, the term ‘new Executed Renaissance’ is increasingly being used in artistic circulation, meaning those artists who have died since 2014 in the war with Russia. One of these writers is Victoria Amelina. The article is devoted to the study of her poetry book Testimonies, which can be defined as a kind of poeticized diary, which records war crimes in the artistic form and depicts those who became either victims or witnesses. The main emphasis is placed on the characterization of homo pacificus in poetic texts, in particular, women who experience loss - from their home to their loved ones. Homo pacificus in the epicenter of war does not always act heroically in the traditional sense; true heroism can also consist in staying on this earth, helping others to stay on and taking their pain on, trying to accept and survive losses in order to tell the whole world about destroyed cities, stolen seas, and broken lives.