A Postcolonial Prayer: Trauma, Heterotopic Spaces and the Deconstruction of Soviet Discourse in Svjatlana Aleksievič’s Černobyl'skaja Molitva

Abstract

Černobyl’skaja Molitva (1997), the fourth part of the Golosa utopii cycle, stands not only as a significant example of Svjatlana Aleksievich’s unique method of composition, but also as a powerful postcolonial response from a subaltern perspective to the “culture of war” in Soviet discourse. Using a postcolonial approach and Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, this essay examines how Černobyl’skaja Molitva deconstructs Soviet identity discourse, particularly the myth of the “Great Victory,” and how the model of prayer creates a shared space - an alternative space of coexistence - which itself can be seen as a challenge to Soviet colonial discourse.