Academic literature on the topic 'Ukrainian cultural narratives'

The article offers a cultural study of one of key aspects of the decommunization process in contemporary Ukraine, formally started by the in- troduction of so-called ‘four decommunization laws’ adopted on April 4, 2015, as manifested in the country’s cultural space through major narra- tives that describe, interpret and mythologize this process from various cultural and ideological positions and viewpoints. The methodological background for the study is provided by well-known cultural studies’ approach that, according to Paul Du Gay, Stuart Hall and others, presumes a systemic analysis of five key aspects of a given cultural phenomenon, namely, its production (creation), its consumption (reception), its regulation (by the state and other actors), its representations in culture (including narratives about it), and identities shaped or transformed by it. In this article, the penultimate part of a cultural study of Ukrainian decommunization is presented in detail. An overview of dozens of articles, columns, interviews and other texts about the decommunization in Ukrainian and foreign media demonstrates that there seem to be four main groups of decom- munization narratives, tentatively named: the ‘purification of Ukraine’ narrative, the regional (or decentralized) narrative, the ‘Bandera-ization’ narrative, and the liberal narrative, each with its characteristic modes of emplotment (from epic romance to satire), with its civilization perspective, its set of sym- bols and values, its ‘heroes’ and ‘villains’. Unsurprisingly, those portrayed as heroes in affirmative narratives (that of ‘purification’, for instance) tend to become villains in negative narratives, the head of Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance Volodymyr Viatrovych being the most prominent one.

The paper studies the integration models used by Ukrainian migrants living in Poland and the resulting problems associated with the rivalry between historical narratives of the Ukrainians and the host community. The author’s work is based on the concept of cultural memory (Maurice Halbwachs, Aleida Assman) and the idea of the dynamic character of images of the past (Jeffrey K. Olik). The data for the study was collected during 30 in-depth interviews with the Ukrainian migrants and also from social networks, forums and open Internet resources. The study has revealed that the majority of the Ukrainian migrants seek to avoid the rivalry between historical narratives, arguing that they personally are not involved in it and events of the past are no longer actual in modern life. Close contacts with representatives of the host community contribute to the assimilation of the Ukrainians. Only a few of the interviewed respondents choose the Ukrainian historical narrative, however they are not going to throw their lot in with Poland. The paper also thoroughly discussed the factors contributing to the choice of one or another position

European historiography changed considerably during the nineteenth century. Formation of historical source study as a separate science, on the one hand, and awareness of the connection between the historical narrative of the past with political interests, on the other hand, gave impetus to the writing of historical works on national history, the so-called grand narratives. They relied on historical sources, but chose what served the actual political interests, and ignored or interpreted otherwise what they did not fit. The territorial organization of living space has become a priority task of national development in the nineteenth century, and the recognition of land, borders, and people as own should have been historically grounded. The difficulty for Ukrainians was that the traces of Ukrainian-Russ statehood were lost in ancient times, while the neighbors, primarily Russians and Poles, tried to draw both the territory and the past of Ukraine into their own concepts of the creation of modern nation. The creation of the Ukrainian grand narrative was influenced by external factors: the division of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the collapse of its once unified political, cultural and intellectual space, and the policy of the Russian authorities, aimed to separate «Little Rus’» from western civilization. Russian censorship successfully removed memory of Polish-Ukrainian ties from historical works and replaced it with the image of the invading Poles. The traumatic, post-war experience, idealization of images of Cossack soldiers was the favorable ground for this. As a result, in Ukrainian historical grand narrative the «Polish-Lithuanian» period was interpreted as an external occupation, a break in the «correct» history of Ukraine. The whole complex of everyday life, cultural and political influences of Ukrainians in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth remained beyond history. Its main content was recognized by the Polish-Ukrainian conflicts. The views on the legacy of the Commonwealth in the Ukrainian society of the nineteenth century can also be analyzed from the perspective of the intellectual biographies of their creators and take into account the experience of relations with the Poles, the private image and repression of the Russian government. An unbiased rethinking by professional historians of the past of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the point of view of the interactions of various cultural spaces in the nineteenth century was not a matter of time. Keywords Ukrainian-Polish relations in the nineteenth century, Ukrainian-Russian relations in the nineteenth century, Ukrainian historiography of the nineteenth century, intellectual biography, cultural and intellectual heritage of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The article offers a comparative study of Ukrainian and Polish historical narratives understood as elements of national cultures of remembrance. Using a methodology of cultural studies borrowed from the Birmingham school, the scheme of ‘modes of emplotment’ proposed by Hayden White, the basic model of historical narrative developed by Jerzy Topolski, and Franklin Ankersmit’s notion of narrative substance, a discourse analysis of fragments of four books by contemporary Ukrainian and Polish authors (Yaroslav Hrytsak, Oleksandr Paliy, Grzegorz Motyka, Włodzimierz Mędrzecki) relating the same period (Western Ukraine between the World wars) was accomplished. All layers of the historical narrative (the informational, the persuasive, and the deep world-view related one), as well as modes of emplotment adopted by the authors and their positioning in their narratives were analyzed. The comparative study makes it possible to elucidate the relations between each of the four texts and the mainstream national historic narratives of the two countries. It also helps us to understand the reasons why the attempts to create a single non-conflicted vision of the ‘difficult issues’ of pour shared past have failed so far.

The increasing flux of Ukrainian migrants into Poland increases the urgency of correlating Polish and Ukrainian historical narratives. Here, a key problem concerns the new pantheon of Ukrainian national heroes, some of whom are viewed quite negatively by many Poles. In this article, problems of competing historical narratives, as well as correlations between historical conceptions and models of migrant integration, are examined with the reference to field research carried out with Ukrainian migrants living in Poland. Here, the main sources comprised interviews with migrants, monitoring of formal and informal cultural activities organized for migrants, as well as data obtained via social networks, thematic forums and the expatriate press. It was found that the main factors determining strategies for facilitating interaction between historical narratives comprise the degree of inclusion of migrants living in different communities of the host country, as well as the level of cohesion among the migrant communities themselves.

AbstractThis article analyzes a political demonstration in Habsburg Lemberg commemorating the death of a Ukrainian student during fights at the university. The Ukrainians in Lemberg figured as an urban minority that claimed chief historical rights on the city, but was largely deprived of the chance to express this claim in public space. In this case, Lemberg's Ukrainians found two alternative sites to be suitable for the public expression of national self: the cemetery, a space largely outside the realm of political control, and a building in the city center of national significance to the local Ukrainian community. In these commemorations, the press played the role of transforming political events into consistent narratives that were in line with different groups' political intentions.

The article focuses on the manner natal narratives accumulate and transmit prevailing traditional ideas about motherhood and the baby in modern society. It lists and exemplifies the major motifs that are typical of oral tradition of the Ukrainians, Slavs, and other peoples. This research is based on stories of more than 500 women about personal experience of pregnancy and childbirth, which were recorded using the narrative interview method. The thick description method (Clifford Geertz 1973) has been applied for material interpretation. The authors analyse animal–child symbolism in the narration of pregnancy, the accents on weather and time while telling about the moment of birth, and the manifestation of each child’s uniqueness in the mother’s interpretation.

The traditional way of describing and researching national demonological systems is the character approach. The article attempts to substantiate another possibility of studying Slavic demonology – through the concept of a mythological motive. The motive is understood as a semantic predicate of demonological narratives of various kinds, the minimal meaningful unit of plot composition (including motives-actions, motives-situations, motives-descriptions etc.). The composition of motives in each mythological tradition is unique and can be used to understand the mentality of the people, their way of perception of the world and their attitude to the world. The article describes, with varying degree of detail, some of the motives characteristic of the Carpathian-Ukrainian demonology: motives “to scare a person”, “to lead astray”, telling fairy tales as a protective charm, substitution of babies by demons, motives of double-mindedness, gaining magical power against hail, a circular dance of forest demons and a number of others. Among them, there are world-known, all-Slavic, actually Carpathian-Ukrainian and also Carpathian-Balkan motives. An analysis of these, as well as of other motives, contained in mythological narratives from the collections of V. Hnatiuk, V. Shukhevych, A. Onyschuk and others, allows us to realize the specificity and uniqueness of the Carpathian Ukrainian tradition, and can also provide material for conclusions of an ethnogenetic nature.

Nearly three centuries have passed since Bulgarian migrants appeared on the territory of contemporary Ukraine. They had to leave their historic homeland due to the strengthening of control of the Ottoman administration over all spheres of life of Bulgarians in the metropolis, as well as the intensification of the Russian-Turkish military confrontation, which drastically affected the economic, social, and cultural situation of the Bulgarian population. The Bulgarians, settled down on the Ukrainian lands, became an integral part of the multi-ethnic Ukrainian society, though fell victim to the assimilation policy of the Soviet period. Bulgarians are undergoing a period of national and cultural revival in the independent Ukraine, which is intimately linked to the process of recovering the historical memory of Ukrainian Bulgarians, restoring the pantheon of national heroes, memorable dates, and revival of traditional culture. In this connection, the researches dedicated to the analysis of the process of formation of the historical memory of the Bulgarian community in modern Ukraine are of particular relevance. The authors emphasize the difference between the two main groups of the Bulgarian community on the territory of Ukraine – Bessarabian and Azov (Taurida) Bulgarians, which is reflected in a reassessment of the role of the migration of ancestors of modern Ukrainian Bulgarians from the metropolis as well as in a monopolization of objects of national and cultural heritage by certain organizations, etc.

AbstractThis paper examines the representations of four Ukrainian cities (Kyiv, Rivne, Chernivtsi, and Lviv) in a few selected fictional narratives by four contemporary Ukrainian authors. Each of these cities represents not just concrete urban settings, but also provides a certain set of beliefs, myths, and historical accounts. The sense of belonging to the local territory is underscored, yet the sense of belonging to the nation and the world is not dismissed. Kurkov, Irvanets, Kozhelianko, and Vynnychuk celebrate the city as a generator and site of identity, simultaneously regional and national.

This study brings into focus the issue of reproduction and transformation ofcultural authority in the so-called post-Soviet context. It seeks to examine howintelligentsia may be presented and what empowering narratives it may articulatein a concrete locality, namely, in the post-1991 West Ukrainian city of L’viv. Theauthor argues that claims for cultural authority stemming from the socio-culturallocation of intelligentsia are decisive in discussions about Ukrainian nationalidentity and cultural development, which gained momentum after independence.Despite significant discursive transformations, after 1991 intelligentsia is stillpresented as the essence of the nation, as its typical and brightest representativeswho assume the right to speak for the whole nation and to extrapolate own valuesand choices to it. The debate focused on the issues of ‘the national’ actualizes a very significantissue of whose class vision is to become a winning concept for the Ukrainiannation-building. Post-Soviet ‘normalization’ in L’viv implies that cultural patternstypical of the privileged and educated urbanites have been rehabilitated andpresented as both nationally authentic and culturally superior ones. In the post-1991 L’viv the representations embedding the urban community into variouslocal, regional, national, and supranational symbolic contexts resonate with effortsof the intelligentsia to (re-)gain control over reproduction of their own socialpositions and cultural narratives about the nation. This study suggests that analysisof the nation-building processes in Ukraine should pay more attention to symbolicrepresentations of cultural authority which are exploited by local actors runningtheir empowering projects.
Denna studie tar upp frågor om sociokulturell reproducering och omvandling avkulturell auktoritet i en postsovjetisk kontext. Studien undersöker de sätt på vilkaen intelligentia kan representeras och de maktanspråk som den genom berättelserartikulerar i den västukrainska staden L’viv efter självständigheten 1991.Författaren hävdar att de anspråk på kulturell auktoritet som intelligentianuttrycker har principiell betydelse i de diskussioner som förs kring ukrainsknationell identitet och nationens kulturella utveckling. Trots betydande diskursivaomvandlingar som intelligentian genomgått har den behållit sin position somnationens centralfigur. Intelligentian representeras som nationens mest typiskaoch framstående representant med rätt att tala i hela nationens namn, vilket gör attden också kan överföra sina egna värderingar och åsikter till sina landsmän. Diskussioner om det nationella temat sätter mycket betydelsefulla frågor ifokus, inte minst de som handlar om vilkas klassvisioner som kommer att fågenomslag i det ukrainska nationsbyggandet. Den postsovjetiska”normaliseringen” i L’viv har inneburit att de kulturella mönster som är typiskabland privilegierade och högutbildade stadsbor har återupprättats, ofta framställdasom nationellt genuina och kulturellt överlägsna. I det postsovjetiska L’viv ärsymboliska representationer av urbansamhället färgade av olika lokala, nationellaoch supranationella symboliska kontexter. Dessa kommer väl till pass iintelligentians försök att (återigen) kontrollera reproducering av sina socialapositioner och de kulturella berättelserna om nationen. Avhandlingen sätterdärmed fingret på hur kulturell auktoritet utnyttjas av lokala aktörer som strävarefter ett socialt och politiskt övertag samt uppmärksammar betydelsen avsymboliska framställningar i analyser av nationsbyggandeprocesser i Ukraina.

Between Kafka and Gogol’. This suggestive title reflects the path that will be undertaken in this paper, approaching the two authors as privileged interlocutors in order to analyze the specific artistic dimension of the newest category of writers that has emerged in Ukraine following the post-Soviet historical fracture. Through the lenses of the peculiar features characterizing Franz Kafka’s and Nikolaj Gogol’s literary experiences, we will be able to highlight the nuances characterizing the specific cultural positioning of contemporary Ukrainian literary production in Russian.

The paper deals with the texts recorded in the Ukrainian language (Upper Dniestrian dialect) by the author during field researches in Bosnia and Herzegovina from the descendants of immigrants from Galicia. The texts are given in phonetic notation, thematically they cover the sphere of material and spiritual traditional culture. In addition to the dialect phenomena, characteristic of the original area of resettlement, numerous contact phenomena are found in narratives, primarily at the lexical level.

This chapter focuses on one of the crucial mechanisms of empire building: the integration of elites. Previous scholars have presumed that the Crimean elite followed a path similar to that of their Georgian and Ukrainian peers. According to the accepted narrative, officials offered the mirzas a role in facilitating the establishment of Russian rule, and they accepted. By the early nineteenth century, mirzas relinquished the reins of authority to Russian officials and landowners, thus removing any vestiges of local particularity in the Tavrida administration. Those who remained in positions of power did so only by forsaking their previous allegiances and becoming part of the Russian social and cultural fabric. In so doing, they left the Crimean Tatar population vulnerable to integrationist policies.