Authorial Presence as a Narrative Strategy in Films of Traumatic Memory in Contemporary Ukrainian Documentary Cinema
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32461/2226-3209.4.2025.351852Keywords:
Ukrainian audiovisual art, narrator, author, documentary cinema, traumatic memory, focalisation, audiovisual narrativeAbstract
The purpose of the article is to examine the phenomenon of the merging of the authorial and narrator narrative instances in films of traumatic memory in contemporary Ukrainian documentary cinema, with a focus on the films 20 Days in Mariupol (dir. M. Chernov, 2024), Real (dir. O. Sentsov, 2025), and Porcelain War (dir. B. Bellomo, S. Leontiev, 2024). The methodological framework of the study includes analysis and synthesis, hermeneutic approach, narratological and discourse analysis, which enable the exploration of the multi-layered structure of the documentary audiovisual narrative. Drawing on S. Chatman’s communicative model of audiovisual narrative, the article distinguishes between the levels of the real author, implicit (hidden) author, narrator, and narrator-character, allowing for the tracing of mechanisms of ‘splitting’ authorial subjectivity in contemporary documentary discourse. The scientific novelty lies in defining authorial presence as a specific narrative strategy in the role of witness-narrator or agent-narrator, and in identifying the tendency to use this strategy in documentaries about the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Conclusion. Authorial presence in films of traumatic memory in contemporary Ukrainian documentary cinema functions not only as a form of subjective commentary but also as a mechanism for understanding traumatic experience, combining factual accuracy with emotional authenticity. It transforms documentary testimony into a space of personal experience and collective memory. Thus, authorial presence emerges as a narrative strategy of testimony, combining documentary ‘objectivity’ with the empathetic and ethical stance of the author. This reflects the shift in Ukrainian documentary cinema from neutral observation to reflexive, emotionally engaged storytelling, in which the author acts as a mediator between personal experience and the collective memory of war.
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