The Ladder by Eugenia Kuznetsova: A queer reading of a wartime Ukrainian novel.

Abstract

The article offers a queer phenomenological, after Sara Ahmed, and "queer world-making," after José Muñoz, reading of the novel The Ladder ( Драбина) by Ukrainian author Eugenia Kuznetsova. The article examines gendered dynamics in the novel, and draws attention to its queer moments and features: more specifically, "competitive queer world-making" where the protagonist and his family appear as minoritarian subjects; "expanded space of the war" and changing spatiotemporal gendered normativities of Ukrainian citizenship and nationhood mediated through the gadgets, and multiplicity of queer phenomenologist "straight lines" affecting the protagonist. The paper also argues for the necessity of employing further gender and queer perspectives in the analysis of wartime Ukrainian fiction literature.