UKRAINIAN CITIES UNDER RUSSIAN SIEGE/OCCUPATION: THE OPTICS OF UKRAINIAN DRAMATURGY 2022/2023

Abstrakt

An axiological-anthropological exploration of how the war was experienced in the besieged/occupied Ukrainian cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Bucha, Irpin, Gostomel, and Mariupol will be conducted based on the material from plays by over 50 contemporary Ukrainian playwrights. The Russian intent to capture Kyiv in 3 days removed the artificially imposed question of Ukraine as a decentralized territory with "first," "second," and "third" capitals. Consequently, in dramaturgy, Kyiv naturally emerges as the sole sacred center, the fall of which must not be allowed. Therefore, the most devastating blows are borne by the Kyiv agglomeration, within which the tragedies of Bucha, Irpin, Gostomel, and other cities, towns, and villages along the roads to Kyiv, measure not only the existential cost of Ukraine's survival and the resilience of the Ukrainian capital but also the world's perception of the war in Ukraine. Dramaturgy interprets and contemporizes the ancient-medieval topos of a besieged city-fortress, where the celestial level of threat/death (rockets, bombs, enemy aviation, the sound of air raid sirens from speakers positioned high on poles), the earthly level of self-sacrifice, involvement in defense, and clear identification of "us" and "them" are emphasized. Additionally, the underground level of rescue (basements, shelters, subway stations) and the formation of a new community of solidarity, trust, and mutual assistance are explored. In this topos, numerous Ukrainians metaphorically immerse themselves deeply, recalling and vocalizing age-old collective traumas, actualizing the history of their lineage, and recalling the stories of their grandmothers/great-grandmothers, who endured not only previous world wars but also the Holodomor, Bolshevik repressions, deportations, and forced Russification. Furthermore, new topos of the occupied and entirely destroyed city will be considered in Ukrainian dramatic writing. In the first case, the focus will be on the anthropology of resistance, while in the second, the exploration will revolve around ghost cities and the visualized dream of their revival and practices of memorialization.