Identity in the Context of Postcolonial Experience
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31861/mediaforum.2026.18.31-46Keywords:
identity, postcolonial experience, collective memory, social trauma, decolonization, Ukrainian caseAbstract
The article provides a theoretical and conceptual analysis of identity in the context of postcolonial experience as a complex, dynamic and multi-level social process. It argues that postcoloniality should not be perceived as a completed historical phase but rather as a long-term structural condition shaping modes of self-reflection, symbolic self-definition, and political subjectivity in societies formerly subjected to imperial domination. Particular attention is paid to the mechanisms of internalized colonial narratives, as well as to the role of language, collective memory, and social trauma in the formation of identity configurations. Identity is conceptualized not as a fixed essence but as an ongoing process of negotiation between competing national, imperial, and global narratives. Using the Ukrainian case as an analytical lens, the article demonstrates that postcolonial societies are capable of generating their own modernization and symbolic projects without merely reproducing external models. The study substantiates the claim that Ukrainian national identity constitutes a theoretically significant and empirically representative case for the global intellectual debate on multiple modernities, the limits of universalism, and alternative trajectories of social development.
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