Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


Bialecki_Thesis.pdf (598.32 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

"They Believe the Dawn Will Come": Deploying Musical Narratives of Internal Others in Soviet and Post-Soviet Ukraine

Bialecki, Melissa
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5883-4978
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1493923081977843

Abstract Details

2017, Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, Music Ethnomusicology.
This thesis explores the roles of internal others in constructing a Soviet and post-Soviet Ukrainian national identity. I begin with an analysis of the kobzars—a group of blind, itinerant minstrels who performed across Ukraine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, before they disappeared entirely during Stalin’s Great Terror in the 1930s. First, I explore the ways in which the Ukrainian bandura, an asymmetrical lute instrument, has become a site for documenting epistemologies of blind musicians in Ukraine. I then examine how these ways of knowing blindness have been influenced by myths of blind musicians in Ukraine that seek to demystify these internal “others.” Furthermore, I discuss how these myths continue to influence 21st century depictions of blind minstrels through an analysis of the 2014 Ukrainian film, The Guide. Finally, I turn my focus to the Eurovision Song Contest in order to examine how narratives of internal others are deployed in order to negotiate Ukraine’s position in 21st century Europe and in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. I then reflect on the ways in which deploying these narratives of internal others does not draw these groups into the mainstream, but instead emphasizes and exploits their difference for the purpose of rejecting external hegemony in Ukraine.
Katherine Meizel (Committee Member)
Sidra Lawrence (Committee Member)
102 p.
Music
Kobzars; Ukraine; Ukraine conflict; Russian-Ukrainian conflict; Russia; Soviet; Soviet Union; Other; Music; Ethnomusicology; Eurovision; Jamala; Verka Serduchka; Gaitana; Yuliya Samoylova; Povodyr; The Guide; Russian Hegemony

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Bialecki, M. (2017). "They Believe the Dawn Will Come": Deploying Musical Narratives of Internal Others in Soviet and Post-Soviet Ukraine [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1493923081977843

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Bialecki, Melissa. "They Believe the Dawn Will Come": Deploying Musical Narratives of Internal Others in Soviet and Post-Soviet Ukraine. 2017. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1493923081977843.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Bialecki, Melissa. ""They Believe the Dawn Will Come": Deploying Musical Narratives of Internal Others in Soviet and Post-Soviet Ukraine." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1493923081977843

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1493923081977843
1,059
© 2017, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.