At the Frontiers of Central Europe: Ukrainian Galicia at the Turn of the Millennium

Zayarnyuk, Andriy

doi:10.25071/1496-6778.8053

Cited by 4 publications

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“…A consistent feature of the present-day intellectual discussions coming out of Western Ukraine is the view of polyethnicity primarily as a matter of the past. 163 However, even when safely "encapsulated" in the past, ethnocultural diversity remains a controversial topic. Some West Ukrainian intellectuals discussing the issue of historical ethnocultural diversity conclude that a seemingly peaceful but deeply conflicted coexistence of different peoples can hardly become a cornerstone for an optimistic narrative connecting the Polish-Ukrainian borderland with "Europe."…”

Section: Lessons Of Effaced Cultural Diversity: the Polish 'Universe' Of The Polish-ukrainian Borderlands On The Pages Of ї Magazinementioning

confidence: 99%

Tragic Past, Agreeable Heritage: Post-Soviet Intellectual Discussions on the Polish Legacy in Western Ukraine

Narvselius

2015

cbp

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The study examines intellectual arguments detectable in the public debate on the thorny history of the Polish-Ukrainian borderlands. It focuses primarily on discourses generated by the Ukrainian (first and foremost, West Ukrainian) party of the dispute. As subordinated to the nation-centric historical accounts, but increasingly important theme opened for multiple uses, the historical diversity of the Polish-Ukrainian borderlands became an object of intellectual re-interpretation in Western Ukraine since the 2000s. Framing this intellectual asset in terms of multicultural heritage (bahatokul’turna spadshchyna) has signaled the effort of the Ukrainian intellectuals to inscribe the local—and, at the same time, transnational—past to a coherent national narrative. On the way, however, it proved to be that the multicultural “universes”—in particular, the Polish one—resist the seamless inclusion into the fabrics of Ukrainian-centric historical accounts due to unresolved memory conflicts rooted in the events of WWII and the post-war period. One of them is the resonant Polish-Ukrainian controversy over interpretation of the anti-Polish action of 1943—44 in Volhynia and Galicia whose ups and downs demonstrate, among other things, that a lack of mutually compatible intellectual conceptualizations of the shared past may undermine trustworthiness of gestures of political reconciliation. Nevertheless, taking the lid off the topic of Polish-Ukrainian violence that was hushed up during the Soviet period allowed Western Ukrainian memory actors to start talking about the multicultural heritage as a public good that deserves public attention. Nevertheless, in the author's opinion, it is still unclear whether in the nearest future the narratives on the dismembered Galician polyethnicity will appeal to cultural imagination of wider audiences or will instead remain an exclusive asset of elitist custodians.

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Section: Lessons Of Effaced Cultural Diversity: the Polish 'Universe' Of The Polish-ukrainian Borderlands On The Pages Of ї Magazinementioning

confidence: 99%

Tragic Past, Agreeable Heritage: Post-Soviet Intellectual Discussions on the Polish Legacy in Western Ukraine

Narvselius

2015

cbp

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Urban commemoration and literature in post-Soviet L'viv: a comparative analysis with the Polish experience

Blacker

2014

Natl. pap.

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This article analyzes how the Poles and Jews who disappeared from the western Ukrainian city of L'viv as a result of the Second World War are remembered in the city today. It examines a range of commemorative practices, from monuments and museums to themed cafes and literature, and analyzes how these practices interact to produce competing mnemonic narratives. In this respect, the article argues for an understanding of the city as a complex text consisting of a diverse range of mutually interdependent mnemonic media produced by a range of actors. The article focuses in particular on the ways in which Ukrainian nationalist narratives interact with the memory of the city's “lost others.” The article also seeks to understand L'viv‘s memory culture through comparison with a range of Polish cities that have faced similar problems with commemorating vanished communities, but have witnessed a deeper recognition of these communities than has been the case in L'viv. The article proposes reasons for the divergences between the memory cultures of L'viv and that found in Polish cities, and attempts to outline the gradual processes by which L'viv‘s Polish and Jewish pasts might become more widely integrated into the city's memory culture.

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In Search of Cinderellas, in Naples and Beyond: Popular Culture Responses to Labor Migration from Ukraine

Shostak¹

2006

SOI

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The question of Ukraine's relationship to Europe has commonly been addressed in Ukraine with the assertion that Ukrainians, above all, are Europeans, and that they equally share-and contribute to-the cultural and spiritual legacy of "European civilization." This question routinely comes up in today's political debates on Ukraine's future membership in the EU, its regionalism and relationship with Russia. It also defines numerous intellectual discussions on Ukrainian identity often seen by popular cultural analysts as split between, or stretched along, the East/West, Russian/Ukrainian, and Soviet/national axes. The search for closer ties with Europe inspires new interpretations of Ukraine's history and its intellectual, spiritual and cultural traditions. Emphasizing past political ties with Europe is one avenue currently being explored to assert Ukraine's rootedness in the European cultural space. Revived regionalism, as in the example of Western Ukraine, helps to reassert local identities according to the region's past membership in European states. Andriy Zayarniuk has discussed the current widespread "Habsburg nostalgia" and the new discourse on "Galician/Habsburgian" identity in Western Ukraine as it has been unfolding in L'viv's public sphere, media, literature, and historical research (2001). Insisting on the long existing civilizational ties between Europe's West and East, where Ukraine is usually understood to be located, is another avenue. Another Ukrainian historian, Yaroslav Hrytsak, advocating a new definition of Eastern Europe as a "second-hand" Europe, reminds us that in historical terms Ukrainians have predominantly been consumers of European cultural values rather than their purveyors (2005). Despite the differences

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At the Frontiers of Central Europe: Ukrainian Galicia at the Turn of the Millennium

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Tragic Past, Agreeable Heritage: Post-Soviet Intellectual Discussions on the Polish Legacy in Western Ukraine

Tragic Past, Agreeable Heritage: Post-Soviet Intellectual Discussions on the Polish Legacy in Western Ukraine

Urban commemoration and literature in post-Soviet L'viv: a comparative analysis with the Polish experience

In Search of Cinderellas, in Naples and Beyond: Popular Culture Responses to Labor Migration from Ukraine

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