Without Ground. Short Stories

The “Non-Canonical Canon” series is a way to talk about those we did not know, whose texts we read without understanding the context of their time. It brings together a wide range of Ukrainian authors and their works. Each text is accompanied by reading guides by Ukrainian literary scholars.

The novel “Without Ground” and the stories “Revenge”, “The Tamed Haidamak” and “Oh, Revukha Rode Away…” are united by a shared theme: the coexistence of conflicting identities within one person and the need to pretend to be someone you are not.

The events of “Without Ground” unfold at the turn of the 1920s–1930s, when ideologues of the new world proclaimed a complete break with tradition — to begin history from a blank slate and create a person unburdened by any inheritance. In an authoritarian state, the leader becomes the sole object of devotion. Cultural scholar Rostyslav Mykhailovych arrives in his hometown of Dnipro to decide the fate of his teacher’s building — the Varangian Church.

Domontovych portrays an atmosphere of total state fear, of masks that grow onto faces, and of intellectual escape from a terrifying reality.