Человеческое Тело и Национальная Мифология: Некоторые Мотивы Украинского Национального Возрождения XIX Века

In: Ab imperio: studies of new imperial history and nationalism in the Post-Soviet space, Band 2006, Heft 3, S. 23-54

Abstract

SUMMARY:
The semiotics of the body in the Ukrainian National Revival is the main focus of the article by Serhy Yekelchyk. If there was a space for the cultural and political self-identification of the Ukrainian patriot in the Russian empire during the last third of the nineteenth century, it was his or her body. During this time even the politically harmless, strictly cultural activity of organizations by the Ukrainian intelligentsia, the so-called hromady , could only be carried on illegally. Thus the space of national and opposition manifestations was restricted to the patriot's own house, his or her clothing, foodstuffs, drinks, hairstyle, moustache and body in general. The author argues that traditions invented by Ukrainophiles of the period between 1860 and 1900 represent the symbolic cohesion of two paradigms in Ukrainian national myth – the Cossack (incorporating the argument of historical legitimacy) and the peasant (which was closer to modern democratic populism). These traditions used only selective motives from original folk customs, historical events, etc. The article analyzes these motives as the body language of Ukraniphiles, i.e., the connotative (as suppose to denotative) meanings of the anti-colonial body placed in a "colonial" culture.