Tõlgitud mälu loengusari: Mälu ja dekoloniseerimine Ukrainas
5. dets 2024 kell 14-17
Tallinn Ülikool, Uus-Sadama 5, M-213
Yuliya Yurchuk, Södertörni Ülikool, Rootsi
Decolonial Approach to Memory Studies in Ukraine
Valentyna Kharkhun, Tallinna Ülikool/ Nižõni Mõkola Gogoli Riiklik Ülikool, Ukraina
Decolonization in Action: Dealing with (Un)wanted Heritage During the Russo-Ukrainian War
Diskussant: Linda Kaljundi, Tallinna Ülikool
NB! Loengud on inglise keeles.
Yuliya Yurchuk
Decolonial Approach to Memory Studies in Ukraine
Decolonization in relation to Ukraine started to be discussed intensively with the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. The scholarly discussions began much earlier, but public discussions became viral after the invasion. Despite the wide usage of the word “decolonization,” there is a limited shared understanding of what decolonization means in practice. In this presentation, I will try to understand what decolonization in the field of memory means. Memory as a narrative about one’s past is central to decolonial thinking. The possibility of reclaiming one’s own (hi)story is central to the resistance to epistemic violence created by the coloniality of power. As Linda Tuhiwai Smith writes, “imperialism and colonialism brought complete disorder to colonized peoples, disconnecting them from their histories, their landscapes, their languages, their social relations and their own ways of thinking, feeling and interacting with the world”. The question of decolonization of memory is thus inextricably linked to the desire to connect to one’s own history. The fundamental role of history in the process of decolonization is indeed mentioned by many decolonial writers. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o mentioned that decolonization means “seeing oneself clearly” (1986) which involves having a clearer narrative of one’s own past, removing the distorting lenses of colonial alienation. Jill Jarvis, in her “Decolonizing Memory: Algeria and the Politics of Testimony Memory,” also writes about decolonization as a possibility to “see or hear what history has rendered ghostly” (2021). Connecting to one’s own history becomes then part of a decolonial project of liberation. But how is it possible to “see and hear” clearly what has been forgotten, erased, or, indeed, never fully re-constructed in memory?I argue that decolonization of memory in Ukraine is driven by three main logics: reclamation, decanonization, and memory activism. These logics do not exclude each other and very often work together in producing memory work that can be seen through the perspective of decolonization.
Valetyna Kharkhun
Decolonization in Action: Dealing with (Un)wanted Heritage During the Russo-Ukrainian War
In applying the concepts of “political iconoclasm” and “urban fallism”, this presentation provides an analysis of “Leninfall” and “Pushkinfall” as two major phenomena of dealing with monumental heritage in Ukraine since 1990. The paper focuses particularly on the last decade between 2014 and 2024, the Revolution of Dignity and Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. The Ukrainian cases of monumental political iconoclasm will be viewed within the context of decommunization and derussification, two identifiable trends in Ukraine’s current politics of memory, which exemplify decolonization as being the primary method in opposing Russian aggression, for remodeling the Ukrainian cultural space, and ultimately in strengthening Ukrainian national identity by eliminating Soviet and Russian imperial domination. This presentation delves into the following questions: What are the political, economic and cultural circumstances which forced a reconsideration of the (un)wanted heritage and eventually led to the toppling and destruction of monuments? What indicative actions have the various state bodies and grass-rooted initiatives had in deciding the fate of contested monuments? How does decolonization of a public space mirror contemporary identity politics? And what makes Ukraine’s undertakings with monumental heritage unique in comparison with other concurrent cases of political iconoclasm? Ultimately, this presentation should contribute to the understanding of Russia’s war in Ukraine within the framework of (de)colonization, as a struggle between Russia’s political and cultural imperialism embodied within the Lenin and Pushkin monuments and Ukraine’s intentions to build an independent and democratic future.
Yuliya Yurchuk, PhD, on Södertörni Ülikooli ideedeajaloo vanemlektor. Tema uurimistöö hõlmab mälu-uuringuid, religiooniuuringuid ja ideedeajalugu. Ta on tegelenud Ukraina mälupoliitika, propaganda ja ajaloo ärakasutamisega Vene-Ukraina sõjas ning regiliooni ja poliitikaga Ukrainas. Praegu tegeleb ta riikidevahelise ideedeajalooga, mis käsitleb ideede ringlust 19. ja 20. sajandil ning Ukraina vastupanuvõime, vastupanu ja mälu dekoloniseerimise küsimusi Venemaa Ukraina-vastase sõja kontekstis.
Valentyna Kharkhun Valentyna Kharkhun on Nižõni Mõkola Gogoli Riikliku Ülikooli professor. Ta on kahe raamatu, kuue õpiku ja enam kui saja Ukraina ja rahvusvahelistes ajakirjades nagu Nationalities Papers, Canadian Slavonic Papers, Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society ja Krytyka avaldatud artikli autor. Ta on töötanud stipendiaadina paljudes erinevates ülikoolides: Pennsylvania osariigi ülikool, Columbia ülikool, Jagelloonia ülikool Poolas, Varssavi ülikooli, Rzeszowi ülikool ja Maria Curie-Sklodowska ülikool, Woodrow Wilsoni keksuses Washingtonis, Alberta ülikoolis. Oma karjääri jooksul on ta tegelenud ideoloogia ja kultuuri suhetega, keskendudes järgmistele teemadele: Ukraina modernistlikud tekstid; kunst Nõukogude võimu ajal; sotsrealismi kaanon ukraina ja vene kirjanduses; kommunismi mäletamine Kesk- ja Ida-Euroopa riikide muuseumides. Praegu kirjutab ta ingliskeelset raamatut „Multi-faceted Memory: Exhibiting the Soviet Era in Ukrainian Museums”.
Linda Kaljundi on ajaloolane ja kuraator, Eesti Kunstiakadeemia kultuuriloo professor ja Tallinna Ülikooli vanemteadur. Tal on doktorikraad Helsingi Ülikoolist. Kaljundi on avaldanud teadustöid Balti ja Põhjamaade ajaloost ja ajalookirjutusest, kollektiivsest mälust ja rahvuslusest, aga ka keskkonna, kolonialismi ja teaduse põimunud ajaloost. Ta on kaaskureerinud mitmeid interdistsiplinaarseid näitusi, sealhulgas “Vallutaja pilk” (2019), “Kunst või teadus” (2022) ja “Kunst antropotseeni ajastul” (2023), kõik Kumu kunstimuuseumis, Tallinnas. Ta on kaastoimetanud mitmeid artiklikogumikke ja näituste katalooge, samuti avaldanud monograafia visuaalkultuurist kui kultuurimälu meediumist („History in Images – Image in History: National and Transnational Past in Estonian Art”, koos Tiina-Mall Kreemiga 2018).