Authors

Anna Glew¹;  ¹ University of Liverpool, UK

Discussion

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, millions of Ukrainians left their homes to seek safety either abroad (as refugees) or in other regions of Ukraine (as internally displaced persons). As a result of shelling, a great number of houses and (in some instances) entire towns and villages were destroyed, with thousands of Ukrainians leaving their homes to fight against Russian forces through military means. These dramatic consequences of the Russian invasion bring the topic of home to the fore, and home is one of the key topics extensively covered in Ukrainian popular war-time music (featuring a range of genres, including hip-hop, rock, pop, and electronic). For examples, Ukrainian popular songs offer recollections about what home was like before the war, and pictures of what it will be like after Ukraine’s victory, while also emphasising the need to defend it in the present.

Via the lens of the war in Ukraine, this presentation will explore how notions of home are expressed in times of crisis, and will analyse song lyrics and music videos as a text, focusing on how Ukrainian popular war-time music narrates ‘home’ (on individual/family and national levels) in the context of displacement, separation from loved ones, and the need to defend against Russian aggression. As academic literature demonstrates, narratives help individuals make sense of their experiences and give them meaning. Narratives can help to create and perform an identity, foster a sense of belonging, and connect people to each other and to their culture. The presentation will utilise theoretical frameworks developed by Catherine Kohler Riessman (Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences, 2008) and Jerome Bruner (The Narrative Construction of Reality, 1991), whose works offer toolkits for analysing both the content of narratives and their functions, while also taking the context (including historical and cultural) into account.