Оpposition of historical narratives in the drama: Ukrainian optics (based on the play by Ihor Yuzyuk “There under the black forest... Banderado”)

Abstract

In the article, Ihor Yuzyuk’s play “There under the black forest... Banderado” is analyzed from the standpoint of  various historical and ideological narratives regarding the  movement of  the  Ukrainian national liberation resistance. The  playwright uses the  conceptual metaphor “banderado” (Spanish “flag bearers”) in  the  title of  the  work, and reproduces it  in the  content characteristics of  its individual parts (a total of 8 banderado inserts with different plots about the individual heroism of Ukrainians from the Cossacks to the first post-Soviet years).

Therefore, Yuzyuk’s drama can be considered as a meaningful narrative polemic with Oles Gonchar’s novel “The Standard Bearers”, because Gonchar interprets the role of Ukrainian soldiers as an organic segment of  the  Soviet army, which liberated European countries from  Hitler’s fascism, but brought Stalin’s socialism there with bayonets. The  phonetic consonance of  the  concept “banderado” with the surname of one of the leaders of the Ukrainian national liberation movement unfolds the discourse of  Stepan Bandera himself, who does not become a  direct character of  the  play, but is  constantly mentioned in  its  dialogues. Ihor Yuzyuk shows how both totalitarian regimes  — both Hitler’s and Stalin’s — tried to use and compromise Bandera and his supporters, how they used the “colonial army” of Ukrainians in their interests and did not pay attention to the colossal human losses, because “they are not counted, they are counted”. Considering the Ukrainian territory as a multi-front zone, which during the Second World War was on the brink of two totalitarian regimes, the playwright seeks to create new narratives both of the war itself and of the Ukrainian national liberation resistance. Every new play about Bandera will be relevant now, because since the beginning of the full-scale Russian aggression, the very name of Stepan Bandera has become for Ukrainians a symbol of unity, joint resistance and a sign of liberation from the hypnosis of a blurred psychedelic identity.