Communicating European Values through Ukrainian Popular Culture: Case Study of the Jean Monnet European Values in Literary Arts Module

Abstract

The social impact of popular culture has been widely recognised and re- flected upon in the culture studies discourse. Traditionally regarded as im- manently conservative, artistically superficial, and inferior to the “high”, “elitist” or official types of culture, popular culture provides valuable in- sights into the cultural climate of the age, not only signalling the im- portant cultural shifts and transformations taking place in society, but also shaping the audience’s preferences, behaviour and values sets. For Ukraine, as a country painfully rebuilding its national identity through long-lasting resistance to Russian colonisation, and at the same time pav- ing its way towards the European political, economic, and cultural area, the matter of conceptualisation and development of pro-European cul- tural policies has become subject of ongoing public and expert discussions outlining the Ukrainian culture industry’s mission as a European values communicator. However, the industry’s actual response to this challenge remains largely unexplored. This study, aimed at investigating the exist- ing axiological climate as revealed through the popular culture products generated for and consumed by the Ukrainian audience, sums up the re- sults of 10 student research projects developed under the Erasmus+ Jean Monnet European Values in Literary Arts module implemented at Za- porizhzhya National University throughout 2018-2021. Encompassing a variety of movies and TV series produced in Ukraine within the last five years, the study attempts to reconstruct the axiological messages the products under consideration deliver to their recipients through visual and verbal codes, character concepts, inner hierarchies, core binary oppo- sitions, conflict setting, building and resolution, etc.