THE FICTIONAL AND THE FACTUAL IN ALEXANDER J. MOTYL’S WHO KILLED ANDREI WARHOL: THE AMERICAN DIARY OF A SOVIET JOURNALIST

The article addresses the 2007 novel Who Killed Andrei Warhol: The American Diary of a Soviet Journalist by Alexander J. Motyl, analyzing its literary representations of the factual and the counterfactual. In his comic narrative about the past, constructed in the form of a diary of a Soviet journalist, Motyl blurs the line between historical and fictionalized facts. As a result, fictional characters (journalist Ivanov, Soviet communists Kelebek and Kolibri, Katyusha) and historical persons (Andy Warhol, Julia Zawacka, Valerie Solanas, Gus Hall, Morris Childs) co-exist on equal footing. Motyl’s novel is also regarded as a critique of the USSR, communist ideology, and propaganda, and as a satire on postmodern thinking. The article discusses the genre features of Who Killed Andrei Warhol as a novel written in the form of a pseudo diary. The theoretical framework of the article is provided by the studies of the literary diary, and the works on representations of historical facts and counterfactuality in fiction.