‘Hope matters’: Ukrainian and international authors on why literature is important in times of conflict
Tetyana Ogarkova: ‘We write and read to understand reality’
Ukrainian literary scholar and journalist
War takes away the ability to speak from many. Many writers say that they cannot write. A number of readers claim that they cannot read. The reality of war is something that can deprive you of the most important things – your life, your time and your capacity to think. It is difficult to write, to think and to dream when a missile hits the very heart of your reality.
But literature is still important. We write and read to understand reality. We write and read to invent a reality. When there is a war, you desperately need both.
When there is a war and you lose something valuable, if not everything valuable, you might think that everything is meaningless. In a way, war and violence are the pure absence of meaning.
That’s why there is no excuse for someone who starts an aggressive war. But those who defend themselves have to search for the meaning of their resistance every single day.
They say that wars are won by those who stand on the battlefield under heavy artillery fire and do not retreat. But no one can bear this if he does not understand the meaning of his resistance. Before being invincible on the
