Contemporary Ukraine on the Cultural Map of Europe

The concept of a 'return to Europe' has been integral to the movement for Ukrainian national rebirth since the nineteenth century. While the goal of a more fully reformed politics remains elusive, numerous expressions of Ukrainian culture continue to develop in the European spirit. This wide-ranging book explores Ukraine's European cultural connection, especially as it has been reestablished since the country achieved independence in 1991. The contributors discusses many aspects of Ukraine's contemporary culture - history, politics, and religion in Part I; literary culture in Part II; and language, popular culture, and the arts in Part III. What emerges is a fascinating picture of a young country grappling with its divided past and its colonial heritage, yet asserting its voice and preferences amid the diverse and at times conflicting realities of the contemporary political scene. Europe becomes a powerful point of reference, a measure against which the situation in post-independence Ukraine is gouged and debated. This framework allows for a better understanding of the complexities deeply ingrained in the social fabric of Ukrainian society. Half Title ......Page 2 Title ......Page 4 Copyright ......Page 5 Contents ......Page 6 Acknowledgments ......Page 10 I. ......Page 12 II. ......Page 15 On Transliteration ......Page 23 References ......Page 24 Ukraine on Historical Maps of Europe ......Page 26 PART I. Mapping the Nation: History, Politics, and Religion......Page 34 1. The Western Dimension of the Making of Modern Ukraine ......Page 36 The Seed-Plot in Brief ......Page 38 German Nationalism and the Habsburg Empire ......Page 39 Between Russians and Poles: Ukrainians in the Russian Empire ......Page 41 The End of the Vienna Connection......Page 44 The Last Act of “1848”: 1945–1991 ......Page 46 2004: An Epilogue—and a Prologue? ......Page 47 Notes ......Page 48 References ......Page 49 2. Cultural Fault Lines and Political Divisions: The Legacy of History in Contemporary Ukraine ......Page 51 References ......Page 61 3. Ukraine’s Road to Europe: Still a Controversial Issue ......Page 62 Bibliography ......Page 70 The Orange Revolution Against the Background of the Religious Mystery Play, “Orthodoxy or Death!" ......Page 73 An Uprising Against the “Byzantine God”: Ukrainian Orthodoxy in a Historic Retrospective ......Page 79 Between “Golden-Domed” Kyïv and “Impetuous Warsaw”: The Duel of Genghis Khan and Charlemagne ......Page 86 Notes ......Page 92 References ......Page 98 5. The Status of Religion in Ukraine in Relation to European Standards ......Page 102 The Ukrainian Religious Landscape ......Page 104 International, European, and Ukrainian Law on Religion ......Page 106 Religious Minorities ......Page 110 Tolerance ......Page 112 Church and State ......Page 113 Church and School ......Page 116 Conscientious Objection to Military Service ......Page 117 The Family ......Page 118 Notes ......Page 119 Bibliography ......Page 120 6. Missionaries and Pluralism: How the Law Changed the Religious Landscape in Ukraine ......Page 122 The Religious Renaissance of the 1990s ......Page 123 Religiosity in Ukraine ......Page 125 Conversion to Evangelicalism ......Page 126 National or Foreign Faith? ......Page 128 Conclusion ......Page 130 Notes ......Page 131 Bibliography ......Page 132 7. The Future of Ukraine if Values Determine the Course: What Opinion Polls Disclose About Public Attitudeson Political and Economic Issues ......Page 134 The Research Environment in Ukraine ......Page 135 Human Rights and Freedoms ......Page 136 Economic Values—Private Property, Privatization, and Pace of Reforms ......Page 137 Political Values—Elections, Campaigns, and a Multiparty System ......Page 139 International Orientation, Models for Development, and Preferred Foreign Policy ......Page 144 Does the Public See Ukraine as a Democracy? ......Page 145 Conclusions ......Page 146 Notes ......Page 149 Bibliography ......Page 152 The Council of Europe’s Condemnation of Totalitarian Communist Regimes ......Page 154 European States’ Stand on Accountability for Human Rights Abuses by Former Communist Regimes ......Page 156 Conclusion ......Page 169 Notes ......Page 170 Bibliography ......Page 171 Surveying the Mythical Terrain ......Page 172 The Politics of Transmission ......Page 175 Dawn of the Fifth Season? ......Page 182 Notes ......Page 184 References ......Page 185 PART II. Reflecting Identities: The Literary Paradigm ......Page 188 10. Mirrors, Windows, and Maps: The Topology of Cultural Identification in Contemporary Ukrainian Literature ......Page 190 References ......Page 194 Cultural Perceptions and Choices ......Page 195 Drama as a Mirror ......Page 198 Post-Soviet and Postcolonial Ukrainian Drama and Its Protagonists ......Page 199 Ukrainian Protagonists ......Page 205 Conclusion ......Page 210 Notes ......Page 211 Bibliography ......Page 214 12. Ukrainian Avant-Garde Poetry Today Bu-Ba-Bu and Others ......Page 219 References ......Page 234 13. Nativists versus Westernizers: Problems of Cultural Identity in Ukrainian Literature of the 1990s ......Page 236 The Center and the Peripheries ......Page 239 The Stanislaviv Phenomenon ......Page 240 How Does a Literary School Emerge? ......Page 242 The East-West Controversy and the Language of Propaganda ......Page 243 Towards Organic, or True, National Literature ......Page 245 Conclusions ......Page 247 Notes ......Page 248 References ......Page 249 14. Back to the Golden Age The Discourse of Nostalgia in Galicia in the 1990s ......Page 252 Notes ......Page 261 Bibliography ......Page 262 15. Symbols of Transformation: The Reflection of Ukraine’s “Identity Shift” in Four Ukrainian Novels of the 1990s ......Page 264 Yuri (Iurii) Andrukhovych ......Page 265 Valerii Shevchuk ......Page 275 Yuri [Iurii] Izdryk and Iurko Hudz ......Page 276 Notes ......Page 279 References ......Page 280 16. Choosing a Europe Andrukhovych, Izdryk, and the New Ukrainian Literature ......Page 282 Notes ......Page 294 References ......Page 295 17. Images of Bonding and Social Decay in Contemporary Ukrainian Prose: Reading Serhii Zhadan and Anatolii Dnistrovy ......Page 297 References ......Page 307 18. Women’s Literary Discourse and National Identity in Post-Soviet Ukraine ......Page 308 Centers of Gender Studies ......Page 310 Four Women Critics and Their Feminist Take ......Page 313 Women’s Voices in Belles Lettres ......Page 315 Autobiographical Turn and Hybrid Genres ......Page 318 Europe as Home? A Conclusion ......Page 321 Notes ......Page 324 References ......Page 325 Part III. Manifesting Culture Language, Media, and the Arts ......Page 328 19. The European Dimension Within the Current Controversy over the Ukrainian Language Standard ......Page 330 Notes ......Page 345 References ......Page 346 20. Colonial Linguistic Reflexes in a Post-Soviet Setting: The Galician Variant of the Ukrainian Language and Anti-Ukrainian Discourse in Contemporary Internet Sources ......Page 349 Anti-Galician Sources on the Internet ......Page 350 Negative Labels for Galician Ukrainian ......Page 353 Modern Standard Ukrainian—a Galician Project? ......Page 357 What Is the Galician Language? ......Page 359 Notes ......Page 361 References ......Page 365 21. Criticism and Confidence: Reshaping the Linguistic Marketplace in Post-Soviet Ukraine ......Page 369 Judgments of Language in Historical Context ......Page 372 Criticism: Forging the Link Between Linguistic and Social Authority ......Page 375 Regional Trends in Criticism and Confidence ......Page 379 Conclusions ......Page 386 Notes ......Page 388 References ......Page 390 22. Linguistic Strategies of Imperial Appropriation: Why Ukraine Is Absent from World Film History ......Page 392 Typology of Narratives on Ukraine ......Page 393 Notes ......Page 403 References ......Page 406 Introduction and Theoretical Context ......Page 408 Media and Identity in Ukraine ......Page 410 A Few Highlights from 2007 ......Page 413 Conclusion ......Page 419 Notes ......Page 420 References ......Page 422 24. Envisioning Europe Ruslana’s Rhetoric of Identity ......Page 428 Notes ......Page 440 References ......Page 441 The Legacy of the Historical Avant-Garde......Page 444 Characterizing the Ukrainian Avant-Garde ......Page 450 The Present Scene ......Page 455 Notes ......Page 461 References ......Page 463 26. “The Past Is My Beginning . . .”: On the Recent Music Scene in Ukraine ......Page 465 Kyïv Music Fest 1990 ......Page 466 Ukrainian Music at the Time of Independence ......Page 467 Kyïv Music Fest 1991 ......Page 469 Kyïv Music Fest: Continuation and Impact ......Page 471 Other Music Festivals ......Page 475 Concluding Remarks ......Page 476 Notes ......Page 478 Bibliography ......Page 482 Index ......Page 483 About the Editors ......Page 499 About the Authors ......Page 500 About the Translator ......Page 504 Mapping the nation : history, politics, and religion -- The Western dimension of the making of modern Ukraine / Roman Szporluk -- Cultural faultlines and political cleavages / Mykola Riabchuk -- Ukraine's road to Europe : a still controversial issue / Giulia Lami -- Finis Europae : contemporary Ukraine's conflicting inheritances from the humanistic "West" and the Byzantine "East" (A Triptych) / Oxana Pachlovska -- The status of religion in Ukraine and European standards / Andrew Sorokowski -- Missionaries and pluralism : how the law changed the religious landscape in Ukraine / Catherine Wanner -- The future of Ukraine, if values determine the course : what opinion polls disclose about public attitudes on political and economic issues / Elehie Skoczylas -- Prosecuting Soviet crimes : the case of Ukraine and the European practice / Myroslava Antonovych -- Collective memory as a device for constructing a new gender myth / Marian Rubchak -- Reflecting identities : the literary paradigm -- Mirrors, windows, and maps : the typology of cultural identification in contemporary Ukrainian literature / Maria Zubrytska -- Cultural perceptions, mirror images, and western identification in new Ukrainian drama / Larissa M.L. Zaleska Onyshkevych -- Ukrainian avant-garde poetry today : BU-BA-BU and others / Michael M. Naydan -- Nativists vs. Westernizers : problems of cultural identity in Ukrainian Literature of the 1990s / Ola Hnatiuk -- Back to the Golden Age : the discourse of nostalgia in Galicia in the 1990s / Lydia Stefanowska -- Symbols of Transformation : The Ukrainian Prose of the 1990s / Marko R. Stech -- Choosing a Europe : Andrukhovych, Izdryk, and the new Ukrainian literature / Marko Pavlyshyn -- Images of bonding and social decay in contemporary Ukrainian prose : reading Serhii Zhadan and Anatolii Dnistrovyi / Maxim Tarnawsky -- Women's literary discourse and national identity in Post-Soviet Ukraine / Maria G. Rewakowicz -- Manifesting culture : language, media and the arts -- The European dimension within the current controversy over Ukrainian language standard / Serhii Vakulenko -- Galicia and Galician Ukrainian in the Ukrainian post-1991discourse / Michael Moser -- Criticism, and confidence : reshaping of the linguistic marketplace in Post-Soviet Ukraine / Laada Bilaniuk -- Linguistic strategies of imperial appropriation : why Ukrainian film is absent from world film history / Yuri Shevchuk -- Ukraine's changing communicative space : destination Europe or the Soviet past? / Marta Dyczok -- Envisioning Europe : Ruslana's rhetoric of identity / Marko Pavlyshyn -- Contemporary Ukrainian art and the twentieth century avant-garde / Myroslav Shkandrij -- The past is my beginning : on the recent music scene in Ukraine / Virko Baley The concept of a return to Europe has been integral to the movement for Ukrainian national rebirth since the nineteenth century. This fascinating book explores Ukraine's European cultural connection, especially as it has been reesablished since the country achieved independence in 1991. It covers history, politics, and religion; literary culture; and language, popular culture, and the arts