The role of Postcolonial Studies in studying the contemporary state of Ukrainian culture

Анотація

Postcolonial studies are becoming one of the most important tools of philosophical analysis in the modern era, as they allow not only to comprehend past imperial practices, but also to realize what they are transforming into in modern conditions, in particular, creating new hierarchies of oppression and direct aggression. Ukraine is supposedly not a classic case of «overseas» European colonialism of the 19th and 20th centuries, although the development of postcolonial studies and the very situation of Ukraine as a victim of a full-scale Russian invasion in 2022 dictate the urgent need for precisely such theorizing within the framework of postcolonial thinking and postcolonial studies. It is postcolonial studies that should deconstruct imperial narratives and correct the cultural subordination of Ukrainian culture, emphasizing its independent mission in world culture.

The goal is to analyze how postcolonial studies contribute to the philosophical understanding of the current state of Ukrainian culture, primarily through the prism of literature, artistic and social practices.

Methods: postcolonial socio-cultural analysis, hermeneutics, comprehensive analysis of literary and artistic discourses.

Results. The key concepts and approaches of postcolonial theory are adapted to the analysis of the Ukrainian cultural situation of 2020-2025, the role of postcolonial studies with their specific terminological vocabulary regarding changes in Ukrainian society in recent years is revealed.

The following concepts of postcolonial studies are reinterpreted in the Ukrainian context: «subalternity» (subordination), «hybridity», «mimicry», «muteness» (a property of the colonized that cannot express itself in discourse), «epistemological violence», «logic of national culture» (the logic of national culture appears as resistance to colonization) and «representation of the Other».

«Subalternity» consists in the fact that the voices of marginalized groups remain unheard, bans on the Ukrainian word contributed to both the marginalization of Ukrainianness and the production of supposedly second-rate art. Only by overcoming «subalternality» can one reach a holistic «logic of national culture» and replace imperial and Ukrainian-centric strategies.

It is proved that it is postcolonial thinking that provides the best opportunity to describe in appropriate terms the great Ukrainian experience of resistance and struggle for identity both in the conditions of centuries-old imperial domination and in the circumstances of modern military aggression. Decolonization is no longer just an intellectual gesture, it has become an ethical, political and even existential need.

It is shown that it is postcolonial studies that open up new epistemological horizons for understanding the Ukrainian experience of 2000-2025, since they allow us to ask such basic questions as who is the leading narrator in the discourse about Ukraine, how legitimate is the structure of postcolonial knowledge, and by what philosophical means to overcome the colonial inferiority and secondariness imposed by the aggressor in culture, language, art and science.

Postcolonial theory opens up new horizons for understanding the Ukrainian experience of 2000–2025. It allows us to go beyond the traditional national discourse and ask fundamental questions: who speaks about Ukraine and what structure of knowledge is legitimate, how to overcome colonial inferiority in culture, language, and science.

Conclusions. The state of Ukrainian culture requires further deep theoretical and practical decolonization, the destruction of imperial narratives.

In general, this involves both a conscious rejection of imposed imperial traces and the creation of a new free alternative epistemological space, the basis of which will be the logic of national culture. Postcolonial thinking is a leading intellectual tool that allows us to free ourselves from violence and the “charm” of empire, to build a new authentic national subjectivity capable of both national development and fruitful cultural dialogue with the whole world. The best assistant in this is postcolonial studies. The main prospects of postcolonial studies in Ukraine are related to their heuristic ability to offer new models of identity and the logic of national development.