Cultural problems of the countries of the region - Ukraine 3224-D2PKKRUKR
The aim of the course is to show the specificity of Ukrainian culture up to the 20th century, the factors that have historically shaped its distinctiveness, and those that determine its complexity and non-uniform character. Individual aspects of culture are discussed through the prism of selected problems, phenomena and social, nation-building, ethnolinguistic, literary, artistic and ideological processes, viewed here in terms of their impact on the shape of culture. The issues addressed are also presented in the context of problems characteristic of the whole region of Central and Eastern Europe.
During the course, the student develops research skills and learns to acquire knowledge independently, with the support of the academic supervisor.
The following problems will be discussed:
1. What do we mean by “Ukrainian culture”? Scope, sources, and the multilayered nature of the phenomenon.
2. “Who came first?”: debates on the antiquity of Ukrainian culture – archaeology, history and the politics of memory. The Cucuteni–Trypillia culture, Scythians, Sarmatians, Eastern Slavs; discussions on the “origins of the nation” in scholarship, popular culture and the ideologies of the 19th–20th centuries.
3. The problem of the Rus’ legacy: how the Byzantine cultural model shaped the spiritual foundations of Ukraine.
4. Ukraine as a contact zone of cultures: multilingualism and multiethnicity from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Dialogue and conflict of cultures; Jewish and Crimean Tatar components; boundaries of cultural contact.
5. The myth of the Cossacks and its cultural reactivations. From the epic dumy to modernist reinterpretations (19th–20th centuries). The Cossack as an archetype of freedom.
6. The Baroque as Ukraine’s cultural project: religious conflict, new elites and the shaping of identity in the 17th–18th centuries.
7. The universal of Romantic culture and the “invention of the nation”. The role of folklore, mythologisation of the past, literature and ethnography as tools for constructing modern national identity.
8. Lviv and Kyiv: two models of Ukrainian culture at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The Galician and Dnieper contrast: political modernity versus social conservatism; differing patterns in the formation of the intelligentsia.
9. Ukrainian modernity: cities, press, cinema and the avant-garde of 1900–1930. Urbanisation, the emergence of Ukrainian cinema, press illustration, visual culture of pre-war Ukraine; transformations in cultural governance.
10. Religion, ritual and everyday life under state violence: transformations of Ukrainian culture from the 1920s to the 1950s.
11. Political folklore and folk culture as carriers of collective memory (from the 19th century to the 1930s). Songs, legends, anecdotes; peasant memory; interpretations of political events through folk culture and urban folklore.
12. The “Soviet person” in Ukraine: between Russification, modernisation and cultural resistance. Soviet identity policy, changes in social norms, everyday culture, centre–periphery relations and the crisis of the late 1980s.
13. Unofficial culture and symbolic resistance, 1950–1980. Samizdat, underground religious culture, dissident rituals of memory.
14. The “Soviet iconosphere” and visual propaganda in Ukraine (1945–1985). Posters, state rituals, monuments, mass celebrations; official art and alternative culture.
15. The collapse of the USSR as a Ukrainian cultural turning point: from perestroika to independence (1985–1991). Transformations of collective imaginaries, revival of language and symbols, protest culture and the dynamics of Ukrainian identity in the final years of the Soviet Union.
Student workload includes:
Classroom participation – 30 hours (1 ECTS)
Preparing for classes – 30 hours (1 ECTS)
Preparation for the oral exam – 30 hours (1 ECTS)
Course coordinators
Mode
Learning outcomes
Knowledge: the graduate knows and understands:
- at an advanced level the specificity of various anthropological models of culture (traditional, noble, bourgeois, mass), evaluates the processes of their transformation and interrelationships, and interprets their manifestations in the symbolic and semiotic domains, including culture, art, literature, and the historical contexts of Ukraine (K_W03)
- at an advanced level, the student comprehensively investigates the history and contemporary realities of the Ukraine synthesizes historical issues, concepts, and ideas concerning the demarcation of Central and Eastern Europe as a region, and assesses cultural processes and phenomena in relation to social and political changes (K_W04)
-at an advanced level, the student examines the formation of national, religious, socio-political, and economic relations in the Central and Eastern European context (K_W06)
-at an advanced understanding of the broadly understood intercultural context; has knowledge of humans as entities constructing social structures and cultural products, and is aware of the principles of their functioning (K_W07)
- at advanced level understanding of the principles governing the operation of cultural institutions and national heritage, and is familiar with contemporary cultural life and its entanglements in political and social discourses in the Ukraine (K_W10).
Skills: the graduate is able to:
- search for, select, analyse and use necessary information from various sources (K_U01)
-independently formulate and critically assess research questions, select and apply appropriate qualitative and/or quantitative research methodologies, and conduct supervised research projects within cultural studies and cognate disciplines focused on Central and Eastern Europe (K_U02)
- develop their research skills, independently acquire knowledge with the support of a research supervisor; skillfully formulate thoughts, and present research results in the form of oral or written statements (of various types) (K_U03)
- conduct a critical analysis of cultural products specific to a given era in the development of Ukraine; recognize different types of cultural products of Central and Eastern European countries, analyze them, distinguish different perspectives on the development of culture, being aware of the existence of differences in cultural identities and context (K_U05)
- independently prepare a written and oral statement in Polish and a foreign language on selected topics in the field of literature and present the results of their work to the group (K_U08).
Social competences: the graduate is prepared to:
- critical assessment of existing knowledge, continuous learning and supplementing acquired knowledge and skills (K_K01)
- effective communication and living in society, including in a culturally diverse society, working in a team, coping with typical professional situations, verifying one's views through factual discussion and evaluating one's knowledge (K_K02)
- participating in cultural life, enjoying its various forms, as well as initiating activities in society and presenting tasks in an accessible form, including using information technology (K_U05).
Assessment criteria
I. The organization of classes:
1) Attendance at all classes, covered by the plan, shall be compulsory.
2) It is not possible to have a resit if the reason of failing the credit was noncompliance with the requirement to participate in them. In such a case a student can be conditionally registered in an successive stage of study and can repeat the failed course.
3) In case of 30 hours in semester, 2 absences without justifying are acceptable. Missed classes must be made up in accordance with the requirements of the lecturer. The requirements are provided by the lecturer during the first class.
II. Assessment Criteria:
The final grade is composed of:
Substantive participation in classes (25%)
Presentation on a topic assigned by the lecturer (25%)
Final oral statement (50%)
Grading system:
99 – 100% - 5 (excellent)
93 - 98% - 5 (very good)
87 - 92% - 4,5 (fairly good)
77 - 86% - 4 (good)
71 - 76% - 3,5 (satisfactory plus)
60 - 70% - 3 (satisfactory)
Bibliography
Berdychowska B., Ukraina: ludzie i książki, Wrocław 2006.
Bunt pokolenia. Rozmowy z intelektualistami ukraińskimi, red.: Berdychowska B., Hnatiuk A., Lublin 2000.
Hnatiuk O., Pożegnanie z imperium. Ukraińskie dyskusje o tożsamość, Lublin 2003.
Hrycak J., Historia Ukrainy, 1772—1999. Narodziny nowoczesnego narodu, Lublin 2000.
Hrycak J., Nowa Ukraina. Nowe interpretacje, Wrocław 2009.
Jakowenko N. Druga strona lustra, z historii wyobrażeń i idei na Ukrainie XVI-XVII wieku, Warszawa 2010.
Karabowicz T., Dziedzictwo kultury ukraińskiej, Lublin 2001.
Karabowicz T., Tożsamość cerkwi ukraińskiej, Lublin 2004.
Kornijenko A., Ukraiński modernizm. Kraków 1998.
Lipiński W., Religia i Kościół w dziejach Ukrainy, Przemyśl 1999.
Klimecki M., Karpus Z., Czas samotności. Ukraina i Ukraińcy w latach 1914-2018, Wydawnictwo Bellona 2018.
Wilczyński W., Leksykon kultury ukraińskiej, Kraków 2018.
Riabczuk M., Dwie Ukrainy, Wrocław 2004.
"Szkoła ukraińska" w romantyzmie polskim. Szkice polsko-ukraińskie. Pod red. S. Makowskiego, Warszawa 2012.
In addition, literature is provided during classes and is adapted to the topics covered.