Erasure of a Word: New project exposes the colonial assault on Ukrainian literature

Chytomo has launched a special project about colonial efforts to erase Ukrainian literature and its resilience in the face of these challenges. 

This special project, called Erasure of a Word, was created to reveal the losses and enduring tenacity of Ukrainian literature and its creators. It details the extensive efforts made to erase important stories and names, but also celebrates the ongoing Ukrainian literary process despite all hardships. The project is implemented in cooperation with the Kharkiv Literary Museum has received the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Erasure of a Word features articles about how others have sought to destroy Ukrainian literature, including the exile, imprisonment, and murder of writers; the destruction of printing houses and libraries; the forced administration of punitive medicine to artists; the use of museums for propaganda; and the creation of minority groups. Efforts were also made to “ideologically correct” writers by granting them status and privileges. 

“While recognizing and grouping the methods of ‘colonial erasure,’ the curatorial team was shocked by their variety and diversity. All governmental branches — no exception made — worked to implement imperial policy. Entire institutions and organizations were founded, so that even more people became the perpetrators of control and repression. Of course, there were always ‘people who knew no fear,’ dissidents who responded abruptly to injustice and at all times prevented the erasure of the word,” commented Oksana Khmeliovska, Chytomo cofounder.

The special project’s eight features will be available both in Ukrainian and English. Read the first one here.

Erasure of a Word was established in support of the Antitext exhibition by the Kharkiv Literary Museum, which opens its doors to visitors in Berlin on Sept. 30 and in Cologne, Germany, on Oct. 14. The aim of the Antitext exhibition is to show what happened to Ukrainian cultural heritage that did not fit into the official USSR doctrine.

“The Antitext exhibition, showcasing museum items from the literary museum collection, deals primarily with methods of cultural genocide. These methods proved to be efficient, and they are still extensively used by Russia today. The special project Erasure of a Word will help to delve deeper into this topic and to show it from a time perspective,” said Tetiana Ihoshyna, deputy director of the Kharkiv Literary Museum.

Chytomo is a media platform about books, the culture of reading, and book publishing. This platform performs important functions of criticizing, informing, and building the cultural ecosystem.

Kharkiv Literary Museum is a municipal museum in Kharkiv. The exhibitions and educational programs of the literary museum show the influence of literature on people’s lives and how it reflects the cultural experience of different communities. The museum’s projects of the last two years include the Kharkiv Art Residence Slovo, the Antitext and Proper Names exhibitions, the Fifth Kharkiv festival, the music album Skovorodance, and the multidisciplinary project In the Name of the City.

Copy editing: Sheri Liguori

Proofreading: Terra Friedman King