Academic Scientific JournalsRepresenting the Holodomor in Children’s Literature: Genocide, Memory, and Pedagogies of Historical Recovery in Katherine Marsh’s The Lost Year
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26881/ae.2025.22.06Keywords:
Holodomor, children's literature, historical fiction, memory studiesAbstract
This article examines Katherine Marsh’s The Lost Year (2023a) as a work of children’s historical fiction that mediates the memory of the Holodomor through narrative, pedagogy, and postmemory frameworks. Situating the novel within broader debates on trauma, collective memory, and media literacy, the article argues that The Lost Year functions as both a literary and educational intervention that recovers suppressed histories while engaging contemporary readers in processes of critical reflection. Through its intergenerational structure, multimodal storytelling, and authorial framing, the novel facilitates the transmission of “next-generation memory” and encourages young readers to actively participate in the reconstruction of the past. The article ultimately highlights the role of children’s literature as a site of ethical engagement and mnemonic transmission in an era shaped by information saturation and contested historical narratives.
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