Making SHUM: Restorative Nostalgia and the Post-Euromaidan Ukrainian Music Revival: A Case Study Analysis of Go_A, ONUKA, and KARNA

Triggered by the Euromaidan protests of 2013/14, Ukraine over the past eight years has experienced a cultural revival as a response to Russian aggression. This revival has manifested itself no more so than in music, where numerous Ukrainian artists have used traditional instruments and ethnic motifs in combination with broader, “western” styles of popular music. In this thesis I will argue that the motivation behind this music revival - and by extension the wider cultural revival in general - is a restorative nostalgia for a free, flourishing, democratic, western-oriented, independent Ukraine that is entirely separate from Russia. After noting the stark similarities between music revivalism and restorative nostalgia, I will answer how more deeply held restorative nostalgic sentiments manifest themselves in Ukrainian revivalist music, and investigate why these sentiments manifest themselves in the way that they do. I will argue that contemporary Ukrainian revivalist popular music is...Show moreTriggered by the Euromaidan protests of 2013/14, Ukraine over the past eight years has experienced a cultural revival as a response to Russian aggression. This revival has manifested itself no more so than in music, where numerous Ukrainian artists have used traditional instruments and ethnic motifs in combination with broader, “western” styles of popular music. In this thesis I will argue that the motivation behind this music revival - and by extension the wider cultural revival in general - is a restorative nostalgia for a free, flourishing, democratic, western-oriented, independent Ukraine that is entirely separate from Russia. After noting the stark similarities between music revivalism and restorative nostalgia, I will answer how more deeply held restorative nostalgic sentiments manifest themselves in Ukrainian revivalist music, and investigate why these sentiments manifest themselves in the way that they do. I will argue that contemporary Ukrainian revivalist popular music is instrumentalising the past in present-day culture in order to “create a future”. I term this process “signposting” insofar that signposts create a future for those who follow them, promising where they will eventually end up should they choose that path. Given Russia’s renewed, full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24th February 2022, this topic is particularly current, and will demonstrate Ukrainian culture’s tenacity, ingenuity, adaptability and resilience in the face of Russian military and cultural aggression. While the discussions in this thesis predominantly focus on cultural artefacts from between 2014 and 2021, all evidence is pointing to another Ukrainian cultural revival borne out of the events of 2022 that will make the revival of the past decade seem fairly timid by comparison. To this end, I include an afterword looking at Ukrainian music during the latest chapter of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

Making SHUM: Restorative Nostalgia and the Post-Euromaidan Ukrainian Music Revival: A Case Study Analysis of Go_A, ONUKA, and KARNA