Year: 2010
Author: Yekelchyk S.
Genre: Philology, Culturology
Publisher: Brill (Leiden-Boston)
ISSN: 0090-8290
English language
Format: PDF
Number of pages: 132 (in the magazine version - 256)
This issue of the famous North American scientific publication is dedicated to Ukrainian culture in the post-communist era. It was the result of a conference held in British Columbia in March 2008 on this subject. The guest editor of the conference and co-organizer of the conference Sergey Ekelchik collected under the same cover not only the articles of the conference participants, but also the thematically close materials of other authors of different scientific specialties from around the world, thus embodying the project of globalized and interdisciplinary Ukrainian studies.
The article by Mykola Ryabchuk opens the issue, in which a well-known critic shows the effectiveness of the postcolonial approach for studying Russian-Ukrainian cultural, and not only, relationships. The topic continues Marko Pavlishin with his study of the evolution of Ivan Dzyuba's views on Ukrainian culture, in which the Australian scientist demonstrates the unity of national and universal values in the inherent Dziuba system of ideas.
Catherine Vanner, however, illustrates the problematic nature of the nation-centered approach to modern Ukrainian culture in her work on the emigration of Jews and Protestants from Ukraine to the US - as the American researcher argues, both these groups do not consider the Ukrainian identity important for themselves, do not feel any need to integrate into the life of the Ukrainian diasporas, and generally avoid organizations based on the ethnic principle.
Traditional patriotic ideology did not win in Ukraine itself after the beginning of post-communist transit, one of the manifestations of which, according to Miroslav Shkandria, was modern Ukrainian literature, and in particular the creativity of the Bubabists, with their ridicule of every canon. Maria Revakovich writes about a strong regional (and to some extent a supra-ethnic) element in modern Ukrainian prose, which, however, does not at all indicate separatism, but rather the understanding and use by the authors of all the wealth of the country's cultural mosaic. Vitaliy Chernetsky shows that Ukrainian writers go beyond the limits of the national narrative also through direct use of the world cultural heritage - and thus, ironically, embody the dreams of patriotic critics who would like to see Ukrainian culture an equal participant in world processes.
Natalia Kononenko draws the reader's attention to the existence of a grassroots level of folk culture, namely customs and folklore, which existed (and to some extent still exists) among elderly peasant women who, under Soviet anti-religious policies, were often the only continuers of the Orthodox tradition. It is interesting that the revival of the church organization in the 1990s was perceived by these women with mixed feelings, as the newly arrived priests were inclined to condemn their unorthodox practices, but they themselves were not always a moral model for the parishioners. Alexandra Hrytsak writes about the development of the women's movement in the three East Slavic countries and comes to an optimistic (and, it seems now premature) conclusion that the democratic political regime of Ukraine and the orientation of a significant part of its elite to European integration created in this country favorable conditions for the struggle for gender equality - and this despite the patriarchal rhetoric of the same elite. At the same time, Marina Romanets analyzes the spread of "political pornography" in modern Ukraine and applies a postcolonial approach to this problem, thus supporting Ryabchuk's position regarding his usefulness for Ukrainian studios.
Lada Bilanyuk considers the language scenarios of bilingual TV shows in Ukraine and claims that these TV shows take place in an atmosphere of domination of the Russian with the simultaneous indispensable presence of the Ukrainian - in particular, as a marker of the nationality of a particular program.
Sergey Yekelchik concludes the main part of this issue with an article about the phenomenon of Verka Serduchka, who, in the opinion of the Ukrainian-Canadian researcher, has problematized the very Ukrainian identity and thereby became an extremely interesting subject for studying the boundaries of modern Ukrainian culture.
The number ends with a series of quality reviews, mainly on books on the history of Russia in the new and modern times and its culture.
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