An eco-critical analysis of the novel “Daughter” by Tamara Horykha Zernia

The article presents an ecocritical analysis of Tamara Horykha Zernia’s novel «Daughter», which is considered as an example of artistic understanding of the Russian-Ukrainian war not only in the socio-political, but also in the ecological dimension. The ecocritical approach allows us to interpret the military conflict as a large-scale ecological crisis that destroys the environment, deforms human-natural connections and threatens ecosystems. The focus of the study is the representation of the land, nature and native space as markers of identity, trauma, memory and resistance. Special attention is paid to the metaphors of the devastated landscape, the transformation of sacred symbols (fire, home, Christmas) under the influence of the war, as well as the influence of language, traditions and personal experiences on the reconstruction of the Donbass space. The application of cultural-historical and metamodernist approaches made it possible to consider the novel as a text that captures the complexity of hybrid war, the fragmentation of reality and the need for a deep ethical rethinking of the relationship between man and nature. The article outlines new directions for further research into war literature in the context of ecological humanities.