Discourse Analysis of Pos Djebar's Women of Algiers Oksana Zabuzhko's a Comparative Analysis Course Analysis of Post-Colonial No

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Discourse Analysis of Pos Djebar's Women of Algiers Oksana Zabuzhko's a Comparative Analysis Course Analysis of Post-Colonial No People's Democratic Republic of Algeria Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research Djillali Liabes University- Sidi Bel Abbès Department of English Language Discourse Analysis of Post-Colonial Novel: Assia Djebar's Women of Algiers in their Apartment and Oksana Zabuzhko's Field Work in Ukrainian Sex: A Comparative Analysis A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of English in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctorate in Literature. Presented by: Supervised by: Mr. MAAFA Sofiane Prof. BOULENOUAR Mohammed Yamine Members of Jury: Prof. OURRED Belabbes (Prof.) UDL Sidi Bel Abbès Chairman Prof. BOULENOUAR Mohammed Yamine (Prof.) UDL Sidi Bel Abbès Supervisor Dr. BENADLA Djamel (MCA) University of Saïda External Examiner Dr. BENSEDDIK Belkacem (MCA)UDL Sidi Bel Abbès Examiner Dr. KHELLADI Mohammed (MCA) University of Tlemcen External Examiner Dr.DIB Mohammed (MCA) University of Mascara External Examiner Academic Year 2019-2020 I Abstract The current research study is a comparative study of two major postcolonial feminist literary works; the Algerian author Assia Djebar's Women of Algiers in their Apartment and the Ukrainian author Oksana Zabuzhko's Field Work in Ukrainian Sex. Despite the fact that the two authors belong to a different period of time; Djebar's first experience of postcolonial feminist writing starting earlier in the first half of the twentieth century, while Zabuzhko's first experience of postcolonial feminist writing was towards the end of the same century. Moreover, the two female authors were writing about their countries; Algeria and Ukraine, whose colonial situations in return were not the same. Algeria being it colonized by France; a Western-European imperialist country which colonized Algeria; a totally different country beyond the sea for about a hundred-thirty-two years. While Ukraine was colonized, or should it be said annexed by Russia to what was called the Soviet Union, without forgetting to mention that both Russia and Ukraine shared more than one aspect; geographical area, religion, race, language and culture. Despite all these seemingly differences in both the colonial situations of Algeria and Ukraine, both Djebar and Zabuzhko were writing about the same devastating colonial consequences on both Algerian and Ukrainian women. In the first chapter, I shall be dealing with the different nature of both the French and Russian colonizer, then I shall illustrate that despite of their ideological differences, both the French and Russian colonizer practiced almost the same horrible acts of war and injustices against the Algerian and Ukrainian people. In the second chapter, I shall demonstrate how both Djebar and Zabuzhko wrote the body of the Algerian and Ukrainian women; how their women's bodies were full of scars which attest to the atrocities practiced against them both by the French and Russian colonizer. Finally, in the third chapter I shall demonstrate how both Djebar and Zabuzhko used different languages in decolonizing their cultures; how Djebar used French, the language of the enemy and Zabuzhko used her national language to decolonize their cultures. The methodology applied in this research is based on the close-reading, discourse analysis as well as comparison of the texts of Djebar's Women of Algiers in their Apartment and Zabuzhko's Field Work in Ukrainian Sex. II Dedication I dedicate this project to my wife and son Yazen, Thank you for being a part of my life… III Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, Prof. Boulenouar Mohammed Yamine, whose fruitful suggestions and wise remarks have helped accomplish this project. Many thanks to the members of jury who will be reading this project, thank you for your priceless time and patience in reading my thesis. Special thanks go to the department of English at the University of Sidi Bel Abbes, whom I am honored to be a part of. Endless gratitude goes to the library of the faculty of Letters, Languages and Arts for allowing me access to endless of the resources they have. Special thanks go to my wife and son, Yazen for being such an indescribable joy, without whom this project would never have seen light. Finally, I would like to thank all my colleagues and friends at the department of English, and anyone who has helped me complete this project. Thank you all. IV Table of Contents Abstract.............................................................................................................................. I Dedication.......................................................................................................................... II Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................. III Table of Contents.............................................................................................................. IV List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... VII List of Figures.................................................................................................................... VIII General Introduction........................................................................................................ 01 Chapter One:The Historical Background of Postcolonialism 1.1.Introduction........................................................................................................... 08 1.2.The Postcolonial World........................................................................................ 10 1.3.The Alleged Civilizing Mission of the White Man............................................. 17 1.3.1.The Occident as "us" and the Orient as "them"............................................. 20 1.3.2.The Pleasures of Imperialism ........................................................................ 25 1.4.The Mechanism of "othering"............................................................................. 30 1.4.1. Ethnicity and the Inferiority Complex.......................................................... 33 1.4.2. National Identity ........................................................................................... 37 1.4.2.1. Nativism / Alienation ............................................................................ 40 1.4.2.2. Race / Gender / Citizenship................................................................... 41 1.5. The Western Imperialism versus the Soviet Expansion.................................... 44 1.5.1. The Algerian Rejection to the Western Imperialism .................................. 47 1.5.2. The French Strategies to Maintain Superiority........................................... 51 1.5.2.1.The War of Genocide............................................................................ 54 V 1.5.2.2.The Scorched-earth ............................................................................... 59 1.5.2.3.The Policy of Divide and Conquer ....................................................... 60 1.5.2.4.The Fabrication of Harkis..................................................................... 61 1.5.2.5.Exile...................................................................................................... 64 1.5.3. The Russian Empire and its "other"............................................................ 65 1.6.Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 68 Chapter Two: The Problematic of Postcolonial Femininity and the Female Body 2.1. Introduction........................................................................................................... 71 2.2. The Gendered Nature of Colonialism ................................................................. 72 2.3. Passiveness of Women in History ........................................................................ 78 2.4. Women's Framed National Identity.................................................................... 82 2.5. Postcolonial Female Double Oppression............................................................. 86 2.5.1. Female as a Colonized Subject ..................................................................... 88 2.5.2. Female as a Gendered Subject ...................................................................... 89 2.6. The Legitimate Confiscation of the Female Body .............................................. 93 2.6.1. Women of Algiers in their Appartement ...................................................... 96 2.6.1.1. The Orientalism of Eugène Delacroix.............................................. 99 2.6.1.2. Picasso's Naked Women................................................................... 101 2.6.1.3. Assia Djebar's Representation of the Algerian Women ................... 103 2.6.1.4. The Body behind the Veil................................................................. 110 2.6.2. Field Work in Ukrainian Sex ........................................................................ 114 2.6.2.1. The Body at the Crossfire................................................................. 116 2.6.2.2. The Gulag Nightmare ....................................................................... 119 VI 2.7. Conclusion.............................................................................................................. 122 Chapter Three: Language to Preserve Culture 3.1. Introduction .....................................................................................................
Recommended publications
  • UKRAINIAN CULTURE and LITERATURE by Dr.Oksana Rozumna and Dr
    Ukrainian Literature and photo albums exhibit – Come and Learn about Ukraine SEA POINT LIBRARY 28 FEBRUARY – 6th of MARCH CENTRAL LIBRARY (CAPE TOWN) 7th – 21st of MARCH SOMERSET WEST LIBRARY 22nd – 30th of MARCH TABLE VIEW LIBRARY 3rd – 14th of APRIL ∑ PHOTO ALBUMS, UKRAINIAN ART BOOKS AND PRESENTATIONAL BOOKS ABOUT UKRAINE ∑ UKRAINIAN HISTORY BOOKS ∑ UKRAINIAN MODERN LITERATURE All books are in English Tuesday, 28 February 4-6 pm at Sea Point library (Civic Center, Three Anchor Bay Rd & Main Road, Sea Point) TALK: HOW I GREW UP: FROM COMMUNISM TO DEMOCRACY IN UKRAINIAN CULTURE AND LITERATURE by Dr.Oksana Rozumna and Dr. Hanna Yanovska Life stories of a big European country – what are they like? How people’s lives changed with the culture and literature of Ukraine, being the crossroads of East and West? The largest Ukrainian cities, as well as smaller towns or villages, have their own particular voice and private stories. Cities Oster, Chernihiv, Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv are important parts of the country that grew up together with it and were changing their appearance inside and outside. The country's growing up from Communism to Democracy produced special literature. Vasyl Stus – the master of words, who had to become the voice of resistance. The poet nominated for Nobel Prize. His life has parallels with Nelson Mandela. [Listen to: live voice of Vasyl Stus reading his poems; songs for his poems by Sisters Telnyuk]. Oksana Zabuzhko – the contemporary writer that looks into decolonization of the body, rethinking literature classics and reopening challenging historical questions. [Listen to: recordings of poetry and some prose fragments read by O.
    [Show full text]
  • Poetry Sampler
    POETRY SAMPLER 2020 www.academicstudiespress.com CONTENTS Voices of Jewish-Russian Literature: An Anthology Edited by Maxim D. Shrayer New York Elegies: Ukrainian Poems on the City Edited by Ostap Kin Words for War: New Poems from Ukraine Edited by Oksana Maksymchuk & Max Rosochinsky The White Chalk of Days: The Contemporary Ukrainian Literature Series Anthology Compiled and edited by Mark Andryczyk www.academicstudiespress.com Voices of Jewish-Russian Literature An Anthology Edited, with Introductory Essays by Maxim D. Shrayer Table of Contents Acknowledgments xiv Note on Transliteration, Spelling of Names, and Dates xvi Note on How to Use This Anthology xviii General Introduction: The Legacy of Jewish-Russian Literature Maxim D. Shrayer xxi Early Voices: 1800s–1850s 1 Editor’s Introduction 1 Leyba Nevakhovich (1776–1831) 3 From Lament of the Daughter of Judah (1803) 5 Leon Mandelstam (1819–1889) 11 “The People” (1840) 13 Ruvim Kulisher (1828–1896) 16 From An Answer to the Slav (1849; pub. 1911) 18 Osip Rabinovich (1817–1869) 24 From The Penal Recruit (1859) 26 Seething Times: 1860s–1880s 37 Editor’s Introduction 37 Lev Levanda (1835–1888) 39 From Seething Times (1860s; pub. 1871–73) 42 Grigory Bogrov (1825–1885) 57 “Childhood Sufferings” from Notes of a Jew (1863; pub. 1871–73) 59 vi Table of Contents Rashel Khin (1861–1928) 70 From The Misfit (1881) 72 Semyon Nadson (1862–1887) 77 From “The Woman” (1883) 79 “I grew up shunning you, O most degraded nation . .” (1885) 80 On the Eve: 1890s–1910s 81 Editor’s Introduction 81 Ben-Ami (1854–1932) 84 Preface to Collected Stories and Sketches (1898) 86 David Aizman (1869–1922) 90 “The Countrymen” (1902) 92 Semyon Yushkevich (1868–1927) 113 From The Jews (1903) 115 Vladimir Jabotinsky (1880–1940) 124 “In Memory of Herzl” (1904) 126 Sasha Cherny (1880–1932) 130 “The Jewish Question” (1909) 132 “Judeophobes” (1909) 133 S.
    [Show full text]
  • Collective Trauma and Mystic Dreams in Zabuzhko's
    genealogy Article Collective Trauma and Mystic Dreams in Zabuzhko’s “The Museum of Abandoned Secrets” Mariia Lenherr Department of Psychotherapy, Sigmund Freud University, 1020 Vienna, Austria; [email protected] Received: 20 October 2018; Accepted: 8 January 2019; Published: 11 January 2019 Abstract: The 20th century of human history was overshadowed by the horrifying events of world wars and totalitarian regimes, with their traumatic experiences becoming the very focus of today’s modern globalized society. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is one of the ways of dealing with this overwhelmingly violent phenomenon. This article will discuss an historical traumatic event through literature, using psychoanalytic theories of trauma. The problem is discussed on the level of the actual theoretical landscape including the relation between transgenerational transmitted trauma, collective trauma, and cumulative trauma inscribed in a “foundation matrix” (Foulkes). As a clinical vignette, the novel “Museum of Abandoned Secrets” by modern Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhko is used. The author addresses the functions of dreams, scrutinizing the psychodynamics of the novel using concepts of projective identification, mourning, the need for repair, and epigenetic and fractal theory. It is suggested that the novel facilitates the characters’ journey through trauma and its integration by the large groups (of readers). Keywords: collective trauma; dreams; psychoanalysis; literature; Zabuzhko; transgenerationally transmitted trauma 1. Note on the Methodology
    [Show full text]
  • Memory of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in Post-Soviet Ukraine
    ACTA UNIVERSITATIS STOCKHOLMIENSIS Stockholm Studies in History 103 Reordering of Meaningful Worlds Memory of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in Post-Soviet Ukraine Yuliya Yurchuk ©Yuliya Yurchuk, Stockholm University 2014 Södertörn Doctoral Dissertations 101 ISSN: 1652-7399 ISBN: 978-91-87843-12-9 Stockholm Studies in History 103 ISSN: 0491-0842 ISBN 978-91-7649-021-1 Cover photo: Barricades of Euromaidan. July 2014. Yuliya Yurchuk. Printed in Sweden by US-AB, Stockholm 2014 Distributor: Department of History In memory of my mother Acknowledgements Each PhD dissertation is the result of a long journey. Mine was not an exception. It has been a long and exciting trip which I am happy to have completed. This journey would not be possible without the help and support of many people and several institutions to which I owe my most sincere gratitude. First and foremost, I want to thank my supervisors, David Gaunt and Barbara Törnquist-Plewa, for their guidance, encouragement, and readiness to share their knowledge with me. It was a privilege to be their student. Thank you, David, for broadening the perspectives of my research and for encouraging me not to be afraid to tackle the most difficult questions and to come up with the most unexpected answers. Thank you, Barbara, for introducing me to the whole field of memory studies, for challenging me to go further in my interpretations, for stimulating me to follow untrodden paths, and for being a source of inspiration for all these years. Your encouragement helped me to complete this book.
    [Show full text]
  • Marta Tarnawsky Ukrainian Literature in English
    Ukrainian Literature in English A Selected Bibliography of Translations 2000– Marta Tarnawsky ¶ 21. Andrukhovych, Yuri. The Moscoviad. Tr. from the Ukrainian by Vitaly Chernetsky. New York City: Spuyten Duyvil [©2008]. 185 p. Translation of the novel Moskoviada. With brief notes about the author and the translator on p. [186] and a comment about the novel by Askold Melnyczuk on the back cover. ¶ 22. Antonych, Bohdan Ihor. The Grand Harmony. Tr. from Ukrainian with an introd. and notes by Michael M. Naydan. Lviv: Litopys, 2007. 117 p. col. illus. A parallel text edition: Ukrainian and English. Contents of English language material: A biographical note on Bohdan- Ihor Antonych. • Antonych writing God in The Grand harmony / Michael M. Naydan. • Acknowledgements. • The Grand Harmony: Ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus. That in all things God may be glorified (You’ve placed a dreadful burden on my shoulders). • Veni Sancte Spiritus. Come, Holy Spirit! (Come, come to me, Holy Dove). • Musica noctis. Music of the night (Light up the torch of the pale moon in the sky). • De morte, 1. On death, 1 (Only later I will bow my head in thought). • Gloria in excelsis. Glory in the highest. (To embrace all people). • De morte, IV. On death, IV (I am calm as silence on the water). • De morte, II. On death, II (I don’t know how to ask anyone). • Duae viae. Two roads (I’ve searched for you, Lord, on long roads). • Ars poetica, II, 1. The art of poetry, II, 1 (I am an ordinary poet). • Amen (The concert is over). • Vinea Divina.
    [Show full text]
  • Mapping the Ukrainian Poetry of New York
    Introduction: Mapping the Ukrainian Poetry of New York In the midst of ever-increasing quantity, anthologies enable individual voices to be heard above the collective noise. —Czeslaw Milosz1 In the very city of New York literally every day poets read their work in dozens of different places: at museums, churches, universities, various institutions, libraries, theatres, galleries, cafes and private places. […] Every place that has a roof is a place for poetry. —Bohdan Boychuk2 This poetry is no hymn to the homeland; rather the gaze of the allegorist, as it falls on the city, is the gaze of alienated man. It is the gaze of the flaneur, whose way of life still conceals behind a mitigating nimbus the coming desolation of the big-city dweller. —Walter Benjamin3 The Encounter Legend has it that on a mid-fall day in 1966, while on an official trip to New York City as part of the Soviet-Ukrainian delegation to the annual convention of the United Nations, Ivan Drach—then a thirty-year-old aspiring poet and screenwriter—managed to escape the KGB personnel tailing the poet and headed into a district of the city totally unknown to him. After wandering around this strange neighborhood, the poet stopped before a cafeteria, entered it, and spotted a bearded, bespectacled man sitting in the corner as if waiting for someone. Drach approached him; the two men shook hands. The bearded man, believed to be the American poet Allen Ginsberg, lived nearby in an area known as the East Village. The Ukrainian poet did not know conversational English well, and Ginsberg did not know any Ukrainian.
    [Show full text]
  • (2009) the Death of Don Juan: Modernism, Feminism, Nationalism
    1 17th Annual J.B. Rudnyckyj Distinguished Lecture Thursday, November 19, 2009 The U of M Archives & Special Collections 330 Elizabeth Dafoe Library THE DEATH OF DON JUAN: MODERNISM, FEMINISM, NATIONALISM – RETHINKING UKRAINIAN LITERATURE By Dr. Oksana Zabuzhko Kyiv, Ukraine My lecture is closely connected with my most recently published book entitled,“Notre Dame d’Ukraine: Ukrainka in the Clash of Mythologies”1. In this 650-pg study which attracted in Ukraine more public attention than I could have ever expected, I made an attempt to restore one of the most important, and, through the 20th century, most blatantly ignored Ukrainian modern literary traditions which, if thoroughly scrutinized, could serve as a case study to illustrate one of the key problems of our civilization – the defeat of what once used to be known as “high culture” in the world run by almost unbridled populism, in whatever form the latter may exist in. For the purpose of the current presentation I have chosen to expand one of the “side plots” of the book which has an advantage to be internationally known, and, therefore, would not require from the audience any background in Ukrainian studies. At the beginning I have to clarify my use of terms, of which the juxtaposition of feminism and nationalism probably sounds the most controversial. Needless to say, historically there have been too many “feminisms”, as well as too many “nationalisms” for me to risk at redefining and re-conceptualizing them, towards the 21st century view of a feminist theory of nations - especially taking into consideration, that such a view is in itself eclectic enough to blur the picture all the worse.
    [Show full text]
  • Postcolonial Trauma in Oksana Zabuzhko's the Museum Of
    Natalie Paoli ‘Let My People Go’: Postcolonial Trauma in Oksana Zabuzhko’s The Museum of Abandoned Secrets Abstract: In The Museum of Abandoned Secrets the connection between memory and history is fundamental. This is because, for Ukrainian authors such as Oksana Zabuzhko, one’s relationship with the past is at the heart of one’s self-identification as ‘Ukrainian’. However, with the past comes the issue of collective trauma—the collective trauma the Ukrainian nation experienced as a result of Russian and Soviet oppression. While this trauma is collective in that it affected an entire nation, it is at the same time also individual. In her novel, Zabuzhko’s protagonist must negotiate both types of trauma, particularly in relation to identity formation in postcommunist Ukraine. She does this by going on a quest to reveal the truth of one aspect of her people’s history, and in doing so, works through her own trauma, giving it voice. Published in English in 2012 (it was first released in Ukrainian in 2009), The Museum of Abandoned Secrets may well be considered Oksana Zabuzhko’s magnum opus. During an interview with the Kyiv Post, Zabuzhko referred to the novel as ‘something of a textbook on Ukraine and Ukrainian history’.1 It is an historical novel in the sense that it spans sixty years of Ukraine’s contemporary history and is characterized by its episodic prose style, giving the reader a sense of how memory functions. The novel presents the reader with a number of issues, from explorations around the gendered body to questions about the role of history in the present.
    [Show full text]
  • Ukraine Handbook 2012 Revised 12 May 2012
    Information Handbook for U.S. Fulbright Scholars and Students in Ukraine – 2012-2013 Information Handbook FOR U.S. FULBRIGHT GRANTEES IN UKRAINE , 2012 - 2013 Updated May 2012 Fulbright Program in Ukraine 20 Esplanadna St., 9th floor, Suite 904 Kyiv Ukraine tel: +380(44)287-0777 fax: +380(44)230-2060 http://www.fulbright.org.ua Pubic Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy U.S. Embassy in Ukraine 4 A.I. Sikorsky St. (formerly Tankova) 04112 Kyiv, Ukraine Tel: (+38 044) 521-5000 http://ukraine.usembassy.gov/pas.html 0 Information Handbook for U.S. Fulbright Scholars and Students in Ukraine – 2012-2013 CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION 2.0 VISAS 3.0 ARRIVAL 4.0 LANGUAGE 5.0 FINANCES 5.1 CURRENCY 5.2 CHANGING MONEY 5.3 TRAVELER’S CHEQUES/CASH ADVANCES 5.4 SALARY 6.0 MAIL 6.1 DIPLOMATIC POUCH 6.2 MAIL SERVICES IN UKRAINE 6.3 INTERNATIONAL MAIL/PACKAGES 6.4 GOING HOME: PACKAGE SERVICES 6.5 BOOK ALLOWANCE 7.0 SCHOOLING AND EMPLOYMENT FOR DEPENDENTS 8.0 MEDICAL CARE 9.0 SAFETY CONCERNS 10.0 TRAVEL: 10.1 GETTING AROUND THE CITY 10.2 TRAVEL INSIDE UKRAINE 10.3 TRAVEL OUTSIDE UKRAINE 11.0 UNIVERSITY LIFE 11.1 THE UKRAINIAN SYSTEM 11.2 UKRAINIAN ACADEMIC ETHOS 11.3 HOUSING 12.0 WHAT TO BRING 13.0 RESOURCES ON UKRAINE 14.0 U.S. EMBASSY CONTACT INFORMATION 15.0 FULBRIGHT PROGRAM IN UKRAINE CONTACT INFORMATION 16.0 USEFUL TELEPHONE NUMBERS 17.0 WEBSITES OF THE CITIES WHERE MOST OF YOU WILL BE RESIDING 0 Information Handbook for U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • The Reconstruction of Nations
    The Reconstruction of Nations The Reconstruction of Nations Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569–1999 Timothy Snyder Yale University Press New Haven & London Published with the assistance of the Frederick W. Hilles Fund of Yale University. Copyright © by Yale University. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections and of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Snyder, Timothy. The reconstruction of nations : Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, ‒ / Timothy Snyder. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN --- (alk. paper) . Europe, Eastern—History—th century. I. Title. DJK. .S .—dc A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. For Marianna Brown Snyder and Guy Estel Snyder and in memory of Lucile Fisher Hadley and Herbert Miller Hadley Contents Names and Sources, ix Gazetteer, xi Maps, xiii Introduction, Part I The Contested Lithuanian-Belarusian Fatherland 1 The Grand Duchy of Lithuania (–), 2 Lithuania! My Fatherland! (–), 3 The First World War and the Wilno Question (–), 4 The Second World War and the Vilnius Question (–), 5 Epilogue:
    [Show full text]
  • Geopolitics in Russian and Ukrainian Literature
    Japanese Slavic and East European Studies Vol.37. 2016 SPECIAL ARTICLES A Clash of Fictions: Geopolitics in Russian and Ukrainian Literature Yvonne Howell (University of Richmond) An Overview: Geopolitics and Literature When the vast, multinational Soviet empire collapsed in 1991, the geo- political structure it had struggled to maintain for most of the 20th century — often by means of brutal repression and forced remobilization of entire popu- lations — proved itself in the eyes of many to be fatally out of sync with the epochal norm of the nation-state. By the end of the 18th century, people in many parts of the world had begun to “imagine themselves” as nations and to organize politically into states whose primary function would be to protect, nurture, and (in a kind of Romantic feedback loop) vindicate the existence of the “people” as a “nation.” In Eastern Europe, movements towards national self-determina- tion began somewhat later — towards the end of the 19th century — and were notoriously aborted or suppressed by violent redistribution of power and terri- tory in the aftermath of World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution. As is well known, as the world’s first self-proclaimed communist state, the Soviet Union was ideologically committed to uniting the “workers of the world” on the basis of class interests rather than narrow ethnic or national identity; in practice, the USSR pursued different strategies in different periods to accommodate and/or manipulate the tension within its far-flung borders between national self-awareness and self-expression versus a collective, Soviet, supranational notion of belonging.
    [Show full text]
  • Colonialism and Post- Colonialism
    DOI: 10.7816/idil-06-29-02 idil, 2017, Cilt 6, Sayı 29, Volume 6, Issue 29 UKRAINIAN LITERATURE BY WOMEN WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF COLONIALISM AND POST- COLONIALISM Radana MERZOVA1 ABSTRACT The article focuses on the roots of Ukrainian feminism, outstanding personalities involved in the development of Ukrainian literature and well-known contemporary female writers who interpret the colonial and postcolonial thinking in their works. The article compares the differencies in the development of feminism in the eastern and western Ukraine. The most important Ukrainian feminists are presented as well as their opinion streams and their works of literary criticism. The theme of women has been transformed in contemporary literature; therefore we focus mainly on the works of 20th century. In addition to women's issues we found concrete manifestations of anti-colonial and post-colonial resistance in the works of these Ukrainian authors across of time. The manifestations are based on the denouncement of imperialism. Contemporary Ukrainian feminism is re-evaluating the position of women in society in connection with the cultural and social situation and at the same time takes into account the political context within the particular stages of the historic development of the state. The paper gives examples of postcolonial mythologization of Ukrainian nation, formation of Ukrainian identity by activation of historical memory. In conclusion, the paper introduces a new heroine in Ukrainian prose - woman of complete subjective expressions, an open woman, sexually aware & intellectually mature. Keywords: Ukrainian feminism, contemporary Ukrainian female writers, colonial and postcolonial context in contemporary literary works, Lesia Ukrainka, Olena Teliha, Lina Kostenko, Marie Matios and Oxsana Zabuzhko.
    [Show full text]