Constructing the Narratives of Identity and Power : Self-Imagination in a Young Ukrainian Nation

Twenty years ago Ukraine gained its independence and started on a path towards a free market economy and democratic governance. After four successive presidents and the Orange Revolution, the question of exactly which national model Ukraine should embrace remains an open question. Constructing the Narratives of Identity and Power provides a comprehensive outlook on Ukraine as it is presented through the views of intellectual and political elites. Based on extensive field work in Ukraine, Karina V. Korostelina describes the complex process of nation building. Despite the prevailing belief in a divide between two parts of Ukraine and an overwhelming variety of incompatible visions, Korostelina reveals seven prevailing conceptual models of Ukraine and five dominant narratives of national identity. Constructing the Narratives of Identity and Power analyzes the practice of national self-imagination. Karina V. Korostelina puts forward a structural-functional model of national narratives that describes three major components, dualistic order, mythic narratives, and normative order, and two main functions of national narratives, the development of the meaning of national identity and the legitimization of power. Korostelina describes the differences and conflicting elements of the national narratives that constitute the contested arena of nation-building in Ukraine. "The twentieth century has challenged the established vision of the nation-building processes: the formation of new states in the interwar period and the movement from colonialism and Communism in the second part of the century have bought about a new type of nationalism aimed at constructing nations within new political boundaries. While nationalist movements are perceived as a preexisting foundation for the formation of new states, these states often find themselves longing for a distinctive shared national identity. This "nationalizing," "polity-based, nation-shaping" nationalism involves multiple claims by different groups about what constitutes the core of the nation and the rights of specific groups therein; it "invents" nations that never existed before to imbue the newly created state with shared meaning." - Introduction Title Page Introduction Structure and Functions of National Narrative The Context of Ukraine National Narratives of Ukrainian Elite Impact from Outside: Ukraine in Narratives of International Donors and Experts The Image of a Ukrainian Future Conclusion: Production of Meaning in National Narratives in Ukraine Selected Bibliography Index of Names Index of Subjects About the Author