Authors

Discussion

The paper concerns the Russian-Ukrainian war that has been going since February 24, 2022 in contemporary popular fiction written in Ukrainian, with particular emphasis on the thriller genre. I will conduct the analysis using the example of Andriy Kokotiuha's novel Long Curfew(2023), and I will also refer to other genres of popular literature in which the theme of war is present. Ukrainian-language popular prose has been developing very intensively over the last two decades and – contrary to what is commonly said about this type of work – it does not serve only entertainment and most often does not function as an escape from reality. It can be said that it is quite the opposite, popular fiction written in Ukrainian is closely related to social and political issues and to a large extent concerns identity issues. This also applies to some detective and thriller genres, the specificity of which is immersion in modern times and the desire to formulate a diagnosis of specific, socially significant phenomena. The analyzed novel by Kokotiuha, being a typical, suspenseful thriller with fast-paced action and a crime plot, is at the same time a chronicle of the first days of the war and the social attitudes related to them.