Ideologies of the Self Constructing the Modern Ukrainian Subject in the Other's Modernity
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Date
2016
Authors
Horbyk, Roman
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
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Abstract
Postcolonial theory has recently come under critique as an interpretative scheme applied to
Eastern Europe and particularly Ukraine. However, a closer look suggests that the critique applies
only to some aspects of the approach, such as a focus on power relations and representations,
while the key question should be rephrased as whether the Ukrainian subject was constituted
as a colonial subject. A range of empirical material from 1920s Ukrainian discourses, both Soviet
and émigré, is analyzed to shed light on how Ukrainians constructed their subjectivity as “a site
of disorder” (Dipesh Chakrabarty), splitting themselves into uncultured peasant masses to be
modernized and erased as a voiceless subaltern subject, on the one hand, and modernizing
elites, on the other. This split can be understood as an epitome of the colonial condition.
Description
Keywords
Ideology, subjectivity, modernity, Ukraine, Interbellum
Citation
Horbyk Roman. Ideologies of the Self Constructing the Modern Ukrainian Subject in the Other's Modernity : [electronic resource] / Roman Horbyk // Kyiv-Mohyla Humanities Journal. - 2016. - No. 3. - P. 89-103.