The paper looks into narrating the uncanny in a context of Ukrainian war refugees in Estonia. It concentrates on sleep paralysis experience and narratives that appear in relation to it. The interpretation of those manifestations is placed in a transferable identity that travels along with refugees.
Paper long abstract
A household spirit domovyk is a popular figure in Ukrainian folklore that in book-cases appears during sleep paralysis to warn or hides something just for fun. However, experience centred narrating dimension goes far beyond these manifestations and places domovyk in the center of theorising and making sense of the other supernatural encounters that occur in home environment. He becomes a focal point for understanding the household-related experiences.
The paper looks closely into narrating the uncanny in a context of Ukrainian war refugees in Estonia. The experiences presented in the paper are the examples of sleep paralysis and narratives that appear in relation to or as a continuation of it. The interpretations of those manifestations are placed into a transferable identity that travels along with refugees and explains encounters through the familiar optics. The paper is based on a fieldwork material obtained in 2025 in Estonia.