Maidan on Facebook: Sensitive, Expressive and Interpretative Protest Lore
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MAIDAN ON FACEBOOK: SENSITIVE, EXPRESSIVE AND INTERPRETATIVE PROTEST LORE by Nataliya Bezborodova A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in UKRAINIAN FOLKLORE Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies University of Alberta © Nataliya Bezborodova, 2016 ABSTRACT The thesis traces Internet textual representations of the Maidan, a wide-scale protest movement that took place in 2013-2014 in Ukraine, and their function in identifying the opposing sides during the protests. These texts helped to formulate new narratives, articulate attitudes, and build relationships, create a sense of community within the protestors’ side, which had its impact on institutional changes of commemorative practices. Facebook served as an important platform for the initial appeal, for coordination between the participants, for reflections, and for identification of the opposing sides during the protests. It was a key space for sharing emotions, personal stories, humor and expressive forms of protest, making allusions to known literary works, historical events and world public figures. Exploring the types of narratives and their contribution in identifying the opposing sides, the work is focused on digital stories that illuminate elements not covered by the professional media coverage and official reports. It traces the diverse forms, topics and expressive devices in the narratives, and identifies the categories of lore (eyewitness narratives, (re)telling of stories, jokes, poetry, songs, etc.). It provides juxtaposition of the patterns found in the text with the main events of each specific day. The thesis provides several chapters that focus on: (1) a review of the historical context of the events; (2) an analysis of the data with reference to all categories and topics, and the main findings; (3) the role of humor and expressive devices in releasing the tension of the conflict and in helping to formulate the attitudes within the protestors’ side; (4) evidence of the functions of personal stories as they build relationships, create a sense of community, and validate the participants’ experiences and the significance of the events from the protestors’ perspectives; (5) interpretation within this protest lore, and its impact on institutional changes of commemorative ii practices as in the example of the Nebesna Sotnia (Heavenly Hundred) narrative formation and its correlation to the repertoire of motifs and terms of the selected historical periods: the Cossack, the Ukrainian National Republic and World War II. The study underlines the relevance of time and several patterns related to historical events, as Facebook posts immediately responded to the events occurring on the square and streets occupied by protestors, simultaneously with professional media outlets, and sometimes prior to them. These findings have important implications that go beyond the Ukrainian context in that they contribute to the further exploration of social networks functioning in relation to factual events. iii PREFACE This thesis is an original work by Nataliya Bezborodova. The research project, of which this thesis is a part, received research ethics approval from the University of Alberta Research Ethics Board, Project Name: Facebook Narratives About the Maidan in Ukraine, Pro00048160, February 25, 2015. No part of this thesis has been previously published. iv Dedicated to the memory of my father v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My work on this project coincided with so many turbulent and sensitive events both personal and public that it would not have been possible without the support of many people who helped me at different stages of my research. I remain eternally grateful to them. I am deeply in debt to my parents who were on the one hand concerned about a new and long geographical distance between us, but on the other happy about the new path I had chosen. My father’s habitual sense of humor during the turbulent days in Ukraine and his comments about my more detailed awareness of the events sustained my curiosity in the topic of my research. It provided stimulus to explore further the features of social media today. That gave encouragement for my endeavours and support that later turned out to be our very last moments of communication before his sudden passing away. I devote my work to him. I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation and gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Andriy Nahachewsky whose role and impact on my life within the last three years goes far beyond this thesis. He maintained sincere interest, support and readiness to listen to my ideas from the very first days of my program, and often suggested new ways to explore the chosen topic. Our regular meetings prior to the first draft helped me a lot to formulate specific ideas and concepts, and to build an overall structure of the project. His rigorous attention to even minor issues of structure, ideas, style and grammatical detail in the final draft gave me both understanding of academic standards in writing and a feeling of reassurance as I endeavoured to make the project clear and polished. I am very grateful to have met in Dr. Nahachewsky an outstanding and motivating example of how to balance high academic standards with devotion to the work and care and support of the people around, and to have the opportunity to learn from him. vi I am very thankful to Dr. Bohdan Medwidsky, the founder of the Folklore program at the University of Alberta that supported me and gave an opportunity to study and to grow professionally in the last several years. Dr. Medwidsky’s unfailing optimism and sense of humor gave a positive perspective to many things. The scholarship of the program was a great support, and the staff members of the Bohdan Medwidsky Ukrainian Folklore Archives, and the Kule Centre for Ukrainian and Canadian Folklore, Lynnien Pawluk and Maryna Chernyavska helped me to cope with many daily issues. I acknowledge my gratitude to Dr. Marko Zivkovic, a member of my examination committee, and to Dr. Jean DeBernardi, whose courses in social and cultural anthropology helped me to formulate and develop many ideas. Term papers of their courses served me as significant components to one or another chapter parts. The course of Dr. Elizabeth Le, a member of my examination committee, helped to form my vision of social media as a source of study. I feel very much in debt to my friends who generously provided their help with discussion of the ideas, and primary editing and their suggestions about translation of many texts provided as examples in my project: George Pinchuk, Jennifer Garry, Madison Alford, Regina MacMurtrie, Iryna Bezborodova, Lena Podolyan, Nicholas Denisenko, Charitie Victoria, Cornell Zubritsky, Anastasia Lewis, Olga Ivanova, Larisa Sembaliuk Cheladyn, among others. Special gratitude is due to Lisa Hrabec for her generous help and very helpful suggestions in editing every chapter within the whole writing process. I would like to thank many friends who became my respondents in the project, especially those who generously allowed me to use their public and private posts. Among hundreds of unknown authors, there are many people I met personally and virtually, knowing or following vii them as a reader for a long time: Oleksiy Panych, Vakhtang Kipiani, Boris Yeghiazaryan, Volodymyr Yermolenko, Volodymyr Verloka, Lesya Ivanchenko, Alya Shandra, Alex Mochanov, Yury Butusov, Volodymyr Kukhar, Olena Kulygina, Dmitriy Shandra, Katerina Klyuzko, Efrem Lukatsky, Ihor Solomadin, Iryna Slavinska, Yevhen Avramchuk, Constantin Sigov, Oleksiy Sigov, Oleksiy Chekal, Oleksandr Filonenko, Matvei Vaisberg, Alla Vaysband, Yana Vestel, Olaf Clemensen, Taras Antoshevsky, Roman Bdaitsiev, Viacheslav Gorshkov, Lena Serbinovich, Oleksiy Kurka, Natalia Trukhina, Lilia Matviiv, Viacheslav Saveliev, Yevgeniy Ikhelson, Tykhon Serhiy Kulbaka, Seghiy Koshman, Petro Balog, Oleksandr Zinchenko, and many others. Their texts, sometimes followed by a long discussion, along with being my primary textual material, also gave me better understanding of the physical context and variety of interpretations, where the latter caused by an engaged personality of a reader. I am very thankful to the family of Drs. Vivien and Richard Bosley who opened their house and hearts for me and created for me a feeling being at home. They have been always interested in my work, writing and daily life providing their help and care. My heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Stephen Kent who years ago has told me about Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta and shed light on a new path in my life. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction. 1 Chapter I. Historical Context. 12 Chapter II. Methodology: 31 1. Codes for Each Post 31 2. Categories and Subcategories 33 3. Topics 37 4. Coding Summary 43 Chapter III. Humor: 58 1. Urban Folklore and Popular Culture References 62 2. Traditional Folklore References 83 3. Carnivalesque Forms, Depersonification and Necroaesthetics 93 4. Aesopian Language and Stiob 104 5. Anecdotes 123 Chapter IV. Storytelling: 131 1. Digital Storytelling as a Primary Speech Genre 131 2. Components of Personal Narratives 140 3. Purposes of Storytelling: Relationship Building and Creation of an Event 148 Chapter V. Nebesna Sotnia: Formation of a New Narrative: 163 1. All Historical References 164 2. WWII Discourse 168 3. Sotnias, the Cossacks and the Ukrainian National Republic 174 4. The Nebesna Sotnia Narrative 178 5. Cultural Trauma as a Trigger for Formation of a New Narrative 191 Summary Remarks. 196 Bibliography. 200 Appendix 1. 216 Appendix 2. 218 Appendix 3. 220 Appendix 4. 223 ix LIST OF TABLES Chapter II. Methodology. Table 1. Frequency of Topics 46 Appendix 1. Table 1. February 17, 2014 216 Table 2. February 17, 2014. Extraction 217 Appendix 3. Table 3. February 9, 2014 220 Table 4. February 17, 2014 221 Table 5. February 22, 2014 222 Appendix 4. Table 6. General Data 223 x LIST OF FIGURES Chapter III. Humor. Picture 1. Shots from Fairy commercial 76 Picture 2. Shots from Fairy commercial 76 Picture 3.