DISCURSIVE PRACTICES OF CULTURAL HERITAGE IN SHAPING UKRAINIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY

Abstract

This article examines how discursive practices surrounding cultural heritage contribute to shaping national identity in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The conflict extends well beyond the physical battlefield, unfolding across cultural, linguistic, and symbolic domains that shape present realities through the selective elements of cultural heritage. Drawing on Benedict Anderson’s concept of imagined communities, the study argues that Ukrainian identity is formed and reinforced through shared language, collective memory, and symbolic representation. Within this process, the legacy of Taras Shevchenko plays a defining role as both a cultural symbol and an iconic marker of Ukrainian national identity, as well as a site of resistance and an object of ideological contestation. The article analyzes how discursive practices around Shevchenko’s tangible and intangible heritage – monuments, texts, public rituals, and linguistic practices – have been reframed in competing political narratives. Russian discourse employs symbolic appropriation, selectively reinterpreting biographical facts and cultural meanings to position Shevchenko within a narrative of Slavic unity. Examples from Crimea and occupied territories demonstrate how staged commemorations and controlled representations serve to legitimize imperial narratives and suppress Ukrainian cultural distinctiveness. At the same time, Ukrainian communities mobilize Shevchenko’s heritage as a tool of resilience and cultural sovereignty. Actions such as protecting monuments, restoring suppressed inscriptions, transforming Soviet memorials, and rejecting falsified attributions illustrate ongoing acts of symbolic reclamation. These practices reveal cultural heritage as an active arena of meaning-making rather than a static inheritance. Through case studies and discourse analysis, the article demonstrates that Shevchenko’s legacy functions as both a target of manipulation and a catalyst of national self-definition. The findings reveal that cultural heritage in wartime serves as a powerful medium through which identity is resisted, defended, and reimagined.