Inherited Memories: Olga Hoffmann a.k.a. Tkachuk Brings Back the Memory of Her Father

Abstract

The subject of this article is to trace the memories inherited by Olga Hoffmann a.k.a. Tkachuk (born in 1938), the only daughter of Vasil Tkachuk (1916–1944), the “lost talent” of Ukrainian literature of the 1930s. The purpose of this article is to present a three-dimensional image of Tkachuk — as a man and a father; a victim of the new Soviet authority; a talented writer — emerging from his daughter’s imagination based on inherited memories. Inherited memories collected during two interviews with Olga Hoffmann were analyzed according to post-memory theory. The conclusions of the analysis show that thanks to inherited memories, Olga Hoffmann was able to restore the memory of her father and writer not only for herself as his daughter, but also for posterity. Tkachuk, a talented man, whose premature death made him be forgotten, can already be recognized as one of the classics of Ukrainian literature.