Self-Presentation in the Time of War: Kyiv and Its (Legendary) Past in Books and Performances of 2022−2025

• In Event: Present in the Past: Instrumentalisation of the Past in Memory, Mass Culture, and Self-Presentations

Abstract

Based on my previous explorations of narrative strategies for representing Kyiv’s past, I argue that the current surge of curiosity about the history of Kyiv, on the one hand, continues the centuries-old tradition of glorifying Kyiv, e.g., as “the mother of the cities” and “the second Jerusalem”, with a reference to its uncontested primacy among Rus’ urban centers. On the other hand, it can be interpreted as a deprovincializing mechanism that meets the unprecedented demand for the proud worthy history of the Ukrainian capital city while denying Russian encroachments on it. I plan to examine the subject with a close look at books and plays which have appeared in Ukraine since 2022.

Author

• Svitlana Potapenko, Inst of Ukrainian Archeography and Source Studies NASU (Ukraine)