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Mon21 Jul04:30pm(20 mins)
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Where:
Room 3
Presenter:
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This article attempts to explore the apocalyptic grand-narrative of Ukraine in the mainstream foreign print media in Europe. Specifically, it aims to elucidate the specificity of apocalyptic representation of Ukraine in the European press in diachronic perspective – both in the West European and Ukrainian interwar foreign-language press in Europe.
Research methodology: diachronic comparative analysis; “the method and logic of structured, focused comparison” (Alexander, George (1979); “narrative configuration in qualitative analysis” (D. Polkinghorne (1995), DHA (Discourse-historical Approach (Wodak; Weisigl (2009)
(on the basis of digitized press corpora).
This empirical research spans the chronological terms since 1919 till present, with key counterpoints: the typhus epidemic in Ukraine in 1919– 1921s; the Great Famine/Holodomor in the Soviet Ukraine (1932–1933); Chornobyl nuclear accident (1986), and last but not least, the ongoing Russian total war against Ukraine (since 2022- till now (2024).
Our research findings replicate observations of the American scholar David Altheide (2017) that mainstream “mass media and popular culture are the most important contributors to fear.” Additionally, they corroborate his conclusions about the impact of mass media on constructing crises. Moreover, in this research we argue the apocalyptic narrative is a climax of victimhood grand-narrative of media discourse (Boltansky, L. (1993, 1999); Chomsky, N. and Herman, S. (2002), Blavatskyy, S. (2022).
As we hypothesize here, there is a continuity in the way how print media – both West European, and the Ukrainian foreign-language press developed apocalyptic perspective on Ukraine during humanitarian catastrophes and war conflicts in diachronic dimension of the 20th – 21st centuries. This research will reveal common trajectories of apocalyptic representation of Ukraine from a historical transnational comparative perspective in the press corpora.
Finally, our research proves once again the Spengler's thesis (Spengler, O. Decline of the West, 1918) that "fear of death" is a key driver of research.
