The talk is devoted to the instrumentalization of the image of the Other in the sphere of memory politics in Ukraine since the 1990s.
Two types of the Other will be explored: the ethnic/cultural Other (Poles, Russians, Jews, and Crimean Tatars) and 'civilizational Other' (Soviet legacy). How is the Other presented in the school curricula and textbooks, on commemorations, in the field of 'invented tradition? How is the process of the othering integrated into the politics of the past? Who makes an Other 'the Other'?
The major argument will be based on the suggestion that the massive and continuous introduction of the vision/perception of the past is based on an ethnocentric exclusivist vision of the 'nation' resulted in the alienation of the Other and in some cases, in the transformation of the Other into an Alien. As a result, Ukraine has faced continuous challenges with the construction of the civic nation and the formation of the loyal citizenry.
The lecture is organised within the framework of the HEC Department Colloquia lecture series.
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