Stone Masters Dismantled: Eco-Queering Ukraine’s Colonial Monuments

• In Event: Eco-Mnemonics as Colonial Critique in Literature and the Arts

Abstract

This paper examines “Stone Masters” as literary figures and as objects in public space—stone monuments commemorating powerful men. Across Ukraine, colonial patrimony is symbolized through a built landscape of imperial memorials—what Lesya Ukrainka might call ‘stone power.’ This paper traces how feminist and decolonial projects including plays, short stories, art installations, films, and performances from Ukraine queer its Stone Masters and, in doing so, create new tools for liberation.

Author

• Grace Ellen Mahoney, U of Michigan