Images of the East and the West in Ukrainian historiography: between real and imaginary space
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15407/uhj2019.02.144Keywords:
East, West, Europe, Asia, imagined community, identity, historiography.Abstract
The article investigates the origins of the concept of East – West as a formula of civilizational ideas in Ukrainian historiography. The evolution of the views of historians about the place of Ukraine in this dichotomous opposition has been analyzed. The correlation between the concepts of West and Europe as well as East and Asia in Ukrainian and foreign historical thought has been found. The meanings of the concepts of East and West in the historical texts have been analyzed. Alternative interpretations of spatial images in the Ukrainian Humanities have been compared. The historical genesis of spatial images in the texts of Ukrainian scholars of different epochs has been researched. The content characteristic of the main civilizational images of Ukrainian geopolitical thought has been provided. The main influences of Eurocentrism on Ukrainian historians’ spatial views have been revealed. The Ukrainian version of Orientalism as a specific way of perceiving and describing the East is outlined. The Ukrainian historical thought has a long tradition of "ascribing" Ukraine to an image of the East or the West. These concepts were perceived by Ukrainian historians as holistic and homogeneous spatial and civilizational entities. By the beginning of the twentieth century historians had fully identified Ukraine with one of these images. Since the 1920s the semi-abstract formula "Ukraine between East and West" has become widespread, which remains popular until today. In recent years there is a tendency to deconstruct the concepts of East and West. Instead of the traditional East – West opposition some scholars offer alternative civilizational maps that incorporate Ukraine and its historical past. The tendency is that the interpretation of the concepts of the East and the West as "imaginary" communities that were "invented" by intellectuals. The question of the reality (or unreality) of such entities as East or West still remains a significant theoretical problem.
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