New Imaginaries: Youthful Reinvention of Ukraine's Cultural Paradigm

Having been spared the constraints imposed on intellectual discourse by the totalitarian regime of the past, young Ukrainian scholars now engage with many Western ideological theories and practices in an atmosphere of intellectual freedom and uncensored scholarship. Displacing the Soviet legacy of prescribed thought and practices, this volume’s female contributors have infused their work with Western elements, although vestiges of Soviet-style ideas, research methodology, and writing linger. The result is the articulation of a “New Imaginaries” — neither Soviet nor Western — that offers a unique approach to the study of gender by presenting a portrait of Ukrainian society as seen through the eyes of a new generation of feminist scholars.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Foreword Martha Kebalo Acknowledgments Introduction Marian Rubchak PART I: GENDER POLITICS IN POST-SOVIET UKRAINE Chapter 1. Women's Top-Level Political Participation: Failures and Hopes of Ukrainian Gender Politics Tamara Martsenyuk Chapter 2. Gender Transformations in the Political System of Contemporary Ukraine: Will Ukraine Remain Gender Blind? Oksana Yarosh Chapter 3. Theory to Practice: The Personal Becomes Political in the Post-Soviet Space Tamara Zlobina PART II: POWER OF THE MEDIA Chapter 4. Ukrainian Glamour as a Consequence of the Soviet Past Tetiana Bulakh Chapter 5. Gender Dreams or Sexism? Advertising in Post-Soviet Ukraine Oksana Kis and Tetyana Bureychak Chapter 6. Masquerading as Womanliness: Female Subjectivity in Ukrainian Contemporary Art Tamara Zlobina Chapter 7. Women’s Voices in Contemporary Ukrainian Literary Journalism Mariya Tytarenko PART III: CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS Chapter 8. Homemaker and Breadwinner Roles in the Eyes of Female Labor Migrants Viktoriya V. Volodko Chapter 9. Some Peculiarities of Ukrainian Female Migration to Spain Galyna Gorodetska Chapter 10. Changes in the Lives of Post-Soviet Women in Lviv Oblast Halyna Labinska Chapter 11. Gender Strategies in Research on Family Marriage Practices: Assessment of Contemporary Youth Lyudmyla Males PART IV: PARADIGM SHIFTS Chapter 12. Gender as the “Blind Spot” in Ukrainian Psychology Marfa M. Skoryk Chapter 13. The Ukrainian Woman Elects Patriarchy: Who Benefits? Hanna Chernenko Chapter 14. Men in Crisis: Moral Panicking, Media Discourse, Gender Ideology Tetyana Bureychak Notes on Contributors Index

About the Author :
Marian J. Rubchak is a Senior Research Professor at Valparaiso University. Her work focuses on reimagining Slavic identities in various contexts. She edited the collection Mapping Difference: The Many Faces of Women in Contemporary Ukraine (Berghahn 2011).

Review :
“Without doubt, this volume offers pioneering contributions and fills gaps on the subject of women in the Ukraine. It thus contributes to opening up a new era in the research on gender in the Ukraine. It is obvious that we can count on Rubchak to continue gathering publications on women in the Ukraine, and we look forward to reading the analyses of the cultural changes to come.” • Genre & Histoire “[These are] excellent contributions to gender studies in Ukraine…It is hoped that Rubchak or other scholars studying women and gender in Ukraine will follow up this important work with contributions that assess the state of that field in post-Euromaidan Ukraine.” • Slavic and East European Journal “…a complex and well‐researched volume that raises critical questions about the nature of contemporary cultural and political shifts in Ukraine and offers some worthy fresh ideas and views. The book might be of interest to different groups of readers, ranging from those from within Ukraine, who might want to look at themselves through the looking glass, to scholars and journalists who have a professional interest in the country or are just seeking a short but thorough summary of the local cultural and political landscapes.” • Journal of Soviet & Post-Soviet Politics & Society “Instead of pointing out how ‘different’ Ukrainian feminism/gender studies/women's studies is from ‘Western’ (or other) feminisms, this volume has potential to contribute to our understanding of the exciting and complex ways that feminist thought travels as one of the most important ‘ideascapes’ (à la Appadurai) of our time.” • Sarah D. Phillips, Indiana University “All the chapters comprise intelligent, well-researched discussions of inherently significant issues in Ukraine [and]  relevant to a number of societies and cultures throughout the world.” • Michael Naydan, Penn State University “… [the chapters] convincingly illustrate cultural shifts that occurred in Ukraine since independence and fit a paradigm of ‘New Imaginaries,’ as envisioned by the editor, namely bringing to light those qualities that are often associated with postcolonial societies and labeled as cultural hybridity.” • Maria G. Rewakowicz, University of Washington