'Cultural Memory' and Identity.

Literature, Criticism and the Theatre in Lviv-Lwów-Lemberg, 1918-1939 and in post-Soviet Ukraine

This study focuses on questions of identity and cultural memory at two flashpoints in the L’viv’s 20th Century history, both of which occurred after the collapse of ‘colonial’ regimes: (1) the period of Polish rule, 1919-39, following the dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy; and (2) the period of Ukrainian independence and the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s demise, 1991-present.

The periods chosen represent case studies in how governments and local representatives seek to use cultural means (the Arts, the media) as instruments of policy within ostensibly democratic regimes. Although they lack the overt mechanisms of censorship and control exercised (albeit to very different degrees) by their Habsburg or Soviet predecessors, they are – arguably – no less driven by distinctive narratives about national identity, which inform policy making and attitudes towards the cultural sphere, and towards historical legacies.

The project’s methodology falls squarely within the interdisciplinary, language-based research remit of CEELBAS. For the interwar period, responses to the city’s history and ethnic composition will be examined through public and official channels of culture (newspapers, government communiqués, literary output and reviews). Theatre offers a main focal point, since this most public of art forms aptly demonstrates the extent of political interference and social and cultural change (through choice of repertoire; manipulations of cultural policy by political parties; audience response and composition; press and media reaction).

Documentary sources will be used to demonstrate how contemporary publicists, journalists (such as Tymon Terlecki), authors and politicians (Piłsudski; Kuchma) instrumentalised the city’s history and culture, building and destroying myths, to suit prevailing ideologies (for instance, rival Polish and Ukrainian nationalisms; claims by sizeable minorities such as the Jews). These problematic, ‘discursive constructions’ of the city’s cultural identity will be situated in the context of wider political debates about nationality, ethnicity and the cultural orientation of European L’viv, and especially within the current research on ‘cultural memory’.

Findings from the earlier period (1918-39) will be contrasted with those from L’viv’s current postcolonial context. The later period (1991-) represents a shift from Soviet Russian control to an attempt, after the ‘Orange Revolution’ of 2004 under President Yushchenko, to align the country economically and politically with Western Europe. Cultural policy remains the principal focus, looking at theatre, but also more closely at the role of the news media, and popular music: the latter two especially are said to have played a galvanizing role in the Orange Revolution of 2004.

Questions of ethnic identity, Ukrainian nationalism and L’viv’s West European heritage have served the interests of the pro-Western camp, who have attempted to demonstrate that modern Ukraine is a fundamentally European nation. Poland has also lent diplomatic support, and issues of the city’s past remain central to political debate in the present-day context. However, contradictions remain, especially over the Ukrainian state’s relationship with Russia, and its currently distant goals of NATO and European Union membership. The role of culture in responding to these changes, and of the state in seeking to harness culture (both ‘high’, e.g. theatre and ‘low’, such as pop music) for ideological purposes will be central to the analysis. The intention of this study, therefore, is to illuminate wider trends and ‘cultural processes’, as part of the CEELBAS programme.

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