Walter Benjamin-Stipendium
Dr. Olha Briukhovetska
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- Since September 2025: Research Associate at the Institute of Modern German Literature and Media Studies at the FernUniversität in Hagen with the research project „Opaque Patterns of Cultural Trauma: Ukrainian Poetic Cinema of the 1960s“ (funded by the Walter Benjamin Programme, DFG).
- March 2024–February 2025: Guest Scholar at the Institute of Modern German Literature and Media Studies at the FernUniversität in Hagen (Brückenstipendiums für Frauen im Rahmen des Professorinnenprogramms III des Bundes und der Länder)
- April–December 2023: At-risk Researcher at the Institute of Media Studies, Ruhr-University Bochum with the research project „Queer Sensibility in Sergey Parajanov’s Early Ukrainian films“
- October 2022–March 2023: At-risk Researcher at the Center of Academic Didactic, Ruhr University Bochum with the educational project „Process oriented writing pedagogy“
- 2007–2022: Associate Professor of Cultural studies at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
- 2007: PhD „The Psychoanalytic Concept of Subject and Its Application in Film Theory“, National Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv
- 2002: MA in Cultural Studies, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
- 1998: BA in Philosophy, National Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv
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Book chapters
“Through the Looking-Glass Water: Ex-Centric Visions in Muratova and Parajanov.” In ReFocus: The Films of Kira Muratova, edited by Irina Gradinari and Irina Schulzki, 227–242. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2026.
With Anfisa Doroshenko. “Maybutnie” [“Future”]. In Slovnyk suchasnoho mystetstva. Vypusk 1 [Dictionary of Modern Art. Issue 1], edited by Kateryna Badyanova and Lada Nakonechna, 68–81. Kyiv: Lopatina O. O., 2021.
“Imperator Yurii Illeko: Kolazh na temy kolazhu Paradzanova” [“Emperor Yuri Illeko: A Collage on the Theme of Parajanov’s Collage”]. In Ukrainska kinooperatorska shkola. Vybrane [Ukrainian Cinematography School: Selected Works], edited by Larysa Briukhovetska, 25–35. Kyiv: Osvita Ukrainy, 2020.
“Visual’nyi povorot v kulturi i kulturolohii” [“Visual Turn in Culture and Cultural Studies”]. In Kulturolohiia: Mohylianska shkola [Cultural Studies: The Mohyla School], edited by M. A. Sobutsky, O. D. Korol, and Yu. V. Dzhulai, 130–165. Kyiv: Oleh Filuik Publishing, 2018.
“‘Nuclear Belonging’: ‘Chernobyl’ in Ukrainian, Belarussian (and Russian) Films.” In Contested Interpretations of the Past in Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian Film: Screen as Battlefield, edited by Sander Brouwer, 95–121. Leiden and Boston: Brill Rodopi, 2016.
“Kinematohrafichnyi Donbas period vidlyhy: ‘Chornyi film Paradzhanova, abo moloko dlia heroia’” [“The Cinematic Donbas of the Thaw: Parajanov’s Black Film or Milk for the Hero”]. In Kinematohrafichna reviziia Donbasu [Cinematographic Revision of Donbas]. Art-knyha, 2015.
“European Spectres and Ukrainian Bodies, or What Is Maidan?” In Prophetia, edited by Imma Prieto, 77–80. Barcelona: Fundació Joan Miró, 2015.
With Hedwig Saxenhuber. “Ukraine.” In Gender Check: Femininity and Masculinity in the Art of Eastern Europe, edited by Bojana Pejić and Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, 371–372. Cologne: Walther König, 2010.
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Articles
“Queering Socialist Realism: Serhii Parajanov’s Early Ukrainian Films and His Transition to Poetic Cinema.” Naukovi zapysky NaUKMA. Istoriia i teoriia kultury 8 (2025): 104–114.
“Kartohrafuvannia povorotіv: vid linhvistychnoi modeli do ‘metafizyky prisutnosti’” [“Mapping the Turns: From the Linguistic Model to the ‘Metaphysics of Presence’”]. Naukovi zapysky NaUKMA. Istoriia i teoriia kultury 7 (2024): 11–23.
“La vengeance de Parajanov. Cinéma poétique d’hier à aujourd’hui” [“Parajanov’s Revenge: Poetic Cinema Today”]. 24 Images. Après la révolution: cinéma ukrainien (2014–2022) 204 (2022): 22–27.
“Time and Again.” L’Internationale, April 7, 2022. https://archive-2014-2024.internationaleonline.org/opinions/1091_time_and_again.
With Aronson, Oleg, Amanda Barbour, Philip Cavendish, Natascha Drubek, Heleen Gerritsen, Nick Holdsworth, et al. “DAU: ‘Sometimes This Space Can Hurt You.’” Apparatus. Film, Media and Digital Cultures of Central and Eastern Europe 10 (2020).
With Kateryna Bohuslavska. “Ideolohichni interpeliatsii suchasnykh filmiv pro UNR v ukrainskomu kulturnomu konteksti (na prykladi strichok Taiemnyi shchodennyk Simona Petliury (2018) ta Kruty 1918 (2019)” [“Ideological Interpellations in Contemporary Films about the UPR in the Ukrainian Cultural Context (as Exemplified by the Films The Secret Diary of Simon Petliura (2018) and Kruty 1918 (2019)”]. Naukovi zapysky NaUKMA. Istoriia i teoriia kultury 3 (2020): 49–61.
“Ledi znykaie: Travmatychna pamiat kolektyvu u filmi Tini zabutykh predkiv” [“The Lady Vanishes: Collective Traumatic Memory in the Film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors”]. Naukovi zapysky NaUKMA. Istoriia i teoriia kultury 2 (2019): 14–20.
“Trudove libido: Film ‘Tini zabutykh predkiv’ i seksualizatsiia pratsi v radianskomu uiavlenni” [“Labor Libido: The Film ‘Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors’ and the Sexualization of Work in the Soviet Imaginary”]. Naukovi zapysky NaUKMA. Istoriia i teoriia kultury 1 (2018): 35–41.
“Po toi bik interpretatsii (momenty movchannia)” [“On the Other Side of Interpretation (Moments of Silence)”]. Magisterium. Kulturolohiia 71 (2018): 4–12.
“Poesiia i/chy proza: Do arkheolohii odniiei dyskusii v radianskomu kino” [“Poetry and/or Prose: Toward an Archaeology of One Debate in Soviet Cinema”]. Naukovi zapysky NaUKMA. Teoriia i istoriia kultury 191 (2018): 33–41.
“Mizh konformizmom i emansypatsiieiu: Politychni implikatsii vizualnoho povorotu v kulturi i kulturolohii” [“Between Conformism and Emancipation: Political Implications of the Visual Turn in Culture and Cultural Studies”]. Magisterium. Kulturolohiia 68 (2017): 5–13.
“Vid shakhtaria do poeta: ‘Kvitka na kameni’ Serhiia Paradzhanova v konteksti kulturnoho kodu vidluhy” [“From Miner to Poet: Sergei Parajanov’s ‘Flower on a Stone’ in the Context of the Cultural Code of the Thaw”]. Studii mystetsvoznavchi 3 (2016): 7–20.
“Parajanov’s Metamorphoses: From Versified Film to Cinema of Poetry.” Naukovi zapysky NaUKMA. Teoriia ta istoriia kultury 179 (2016): 50–56.
“‘Aparat’ chy ‘dyspozytyv’? Notatky pro vyrobnytstvo obrazu i vyrobnytstvo subiekta v kino” [“‘Apparatus’ or ‘Dispositif’? Notes on the Production of the Image and the Production of the Subject in Cinema”]. Apparatus. Film, Media and Digital Cultures of Central and Eastern Europe 1 (2015): 24–32.
“Po toi bik potiahu do smerti: ‘Tini zabutykh predkiv’ Mykhaila Kotsiubynskoho i Serhiia Paradzhanova” [“Beyond the Death Drive: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi and Serhii Parajanov”]. Naukovi zapysky NaUKMA. Teoriia i istoriia kultury 166 (2015): 70–74.
“Ne-identychne-z-soboiu: Detsentratsia subiekta u filmi Tini zabutykh predkiv” [Non-identical-with-self: Decentering the Subject in the Film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors]. Naukovi Zapysky Katolytskoho Universytetu. Zhurnalistyka, Mediakomunikatsii VII (2015): 58–73.
“Dvi zhinky: seksualnistʹ u filmi ‘Tini zabutykh predkiv’ Serhiia Paradzhanova” [“Two Women: Sexuality in Sergei Parajanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors”]. Magisterium. Kulturolohiia 59 (2015): 48–51.
“Poetychne kino: Film Tini zabutykh predkiv u konteksti visualnoi kultury 1960-kh rokiv” [“‘Poetic Cinema’: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors in the Context of Visual Culture of the 1960s”]. Magisterium. Kulturolohia 52 (2013): 48–54.
“Ukrainske poetychne kino v konteksti natsionalnoho pytannia v SRSR” [“Ukrainian Poetic Cinema in the Context of the National Question in the USSR”]. Naukovi Zapysky NaUKMA. Teoriia i Istoriia Kultury 127 (2012): 40–45.
“Kontsepsiia ‘shva’ v psykhoanalisi i kino” [“The Concept of the ‘Suture’ in Psychoanalysis and Film Theory”]. Magisterium. Kulturolohia 42 (2011): 9–15.
“Spivvidnoshennia sotsialnoho i estetychnoho v krytytsi kulturindustrii” [“The Relationship between the Social and the Aesthetic in the Critique of the Culture Industry”]. Naukovi Zapysky NaUKMA. Teoriia i Istoriia Kultury 114 (2011): 26–30.
“Zabuty Bodriara” [“Forget Baudrillard”]. Magisterium. Kulturolohia 34 (2009): 10–14.
“‘Dispositif’ Theory: Returning to the Movie Theater.” ArtIt, 2009. http://www.art-it.asia/u/admin_ed_columns_e/apskOCMPV5ZwoJrGnvxf.
“Chernobyl Films: Half-life of the Soviet Imaginary.” KinoKultura, Special Issue 9: Ukrainian Cinema (December 2009). http://www.kinokultura.com/specials/9/bryukhovetska.shtml.
“Instrument ‘u ploti i krovi’: Dzyga Vertov i aparatna teoriia kino” [“The Instrument ‘in Flesh and Blood’: Dziga Vertov and Apparatus Film Theory”]. Magisterium. Kulturolohiia 26 (2007): 53–56.
“Do pytannia pro ‘pervynnu kinematohrafichnu identyfikatsiiu’ v aparatnii teorii” [“On the Question of ‘Primary Cinematic Identification’ in Apparatus Theory”]. Naukovi Zapysky NaUKMA. Teoriia i Istoriia Kultury 40 (2005): 22–27.
“Identyfikatsia v kino: psykhoanalitychnyi pidkhid” [“Identification in Cinema: Psychoanalytic Approach”]. Naukovi Zapysky NaUKMA. Humanitarni Nauky 22, no. 1 (2003): 114–118.
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Opaque Patterns of Cultural Trauma: Ukrainian Poetic Cinema of the 1960s
Key words: Ukrainian cinema, poetic ambiguity, cultural trauma, unspeakability
This project offers a novel interpretation of Ukrainian Poetic Cinema of the 1960s through the lens of cultural trauma. It argues that this significant yet under-researched cinematic movement served as a symbolic channel for processing repressed traumatic experiences, obliquely addressing major violent events of the early 20th century erased from official Soviet discourse. Scholars have predominantly viewed Ukrainian Poetic Cinema's formalist approach and unconventional storytelling as a means of creating a distinctly Ukrainian space on Soviet screens. Without rejecting the framework of national identity, this project expands this understanding, positing that these films reveal a deeply traumatized community whose wounds were neither healed nor acknowledged, thus challenging official narratives in more profound ways than previously recognized. This study hypothesizes that Ukrainian Poetic Cinema of the 1960s employed poetic ambiguity for anticipatory construction of cultural trauma, while simultaneously performing its inherent opaqueness. Through close textual analysis of verbal and non-verbal elements, with emphasis on the latter, the project identifies patterns indicative of traumatic experience. Preliminary research has revealed three such patterns: 'slow violence,' 'dissociative dispositive,' and 'embodied witnessing.' 'Slow violence' refers to prolonged dying that defines or even subverts each film's narrative. The 'dissociative dispositive' encompasses subject positioning mechanisms reflecting traumatic dissociation. 'Embodied witnessing' pertains to non-professional actors serving as living testimony to a silenced traumatic past. This novel approach illuminates the complex interplay of aesthetics, politics, and collective suffering, deepening our understanding of these films. By developing this novel interpretation of Ukrainian Poetic Cinema of the 1960s, this project has significant potential to contribute to three key areas: 1) film studies, by exploring cinema's unique ability to visualize complex social and psychic processes; 2) Ukrainian cultural history, by illuminating the complex interplay between artistic expression and socio-political repression; and 3) trauma studies, by introducing a new case study of anticipatory cultural trauma construction.
Undurchsichtige Muster des kulturellen Traumas: Das ukrainische poetische Kino der 1960er Jahre
Schlagwörter: Ukrainisches Kino, poetische Doppeldeutigkeit, kulturelles Trauma.
Dieses Projekt bietet eine neue Interpretation des ukrainischen poetischen Kinos der 1960er Jahre aus der Perspektive des kulturellen Traumas. Es vertritt die These, dass diese bedeutende, aber noch zu wenig erforschte Kinobewegung als symbolischer Kanal für die Verarbeitung verdrängter traumatischer Erfahrungen diente, indem sie einschneidende gewaltsame Ereignisse des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts indirekt thematisierte. Wissenschaftler*innen haben den formalistischen Ansatz und die unkonventionelle Erzählweise des ukrainischen poetischen Kinos vor allem als Mittel zur Schaffung eines eindeutig ukrainischen Raums auf der sowjetischen Leinwand betrachtet. Ohne den Analyserahmen der nationalen Identität zu verwerfen, erweitert dieses Projekt das Verständnis dieser Filme, indem es die These aufstellt, dass die Filme eine zutiefst traumatisierte Gemeinschaft zeigen, deren Wunden weder geheilt noch anerkannt wurden, und somit die offiziellen Narrative auf tiefgreifendere Weise in Frage stellen, als bisher angenommen.
Diese Studie stellt die Hypothese auf, dass das ukrainische poetische Kino der 1960er Jahre poetische Mehrdeutigkeit zur antizipatorischen Konstruktion kultureller Traumata einsetzte, während es gleichzeitig seine inhärente Undurchsichtigkeit zeigte. Durch ein Close Reading verbaler und nonverbaler Elemente, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf letzteren liegt, werden in dem Projekt Muster identifiziert, die auf traumatische Erfahrungen hinweisen. Im Rahmen der eigenen Vorarbeiten konnten bisher drei solcher Muster herausgearbeitet werden: 'langsame Gewalt', 'dissoziatives Dispositiv' und 'verkörperte Zeugenschaft'. ‘Langsame Gewalt’ bezieht sich auf ein verlängertes Sterben, das die Erzählung des jeweiligen Films bestimmt oder sogar unterläuft. Das ‘dissoziative Dispositiv’ umfasst Mechanismen der Subjektpositionierung, die eine traumatische Dissoziation widerspiegeln. ‘Verkörperte Zeugenschaft’ bezieht sich auf nicht-professionelle Schauspieler, die als lebendiges Zeugnis einer zum Schweigen gebrachten traumatischen Vergangenheit dienen. Der neue Forschungsansatz dieses Projekts beleuchtet das komplexe Zusammenspiel von Ästhetik, Politik und kollektivem Leiden und vertieft unser Verständnis der Filme des ukrainischen poetischen Kinos.
Durch diesen neuartige Interpretationsrahmen hat das Projekt ein großes Potenzial, wichtige Beiträge zu drei Schlüsselbereichen leisten: 1) Filmwissenschaft, indem es die einzigartige Fähigkeit des Kinos erforscht, komplexe soziale und psychische Prozesse zu visualisieren; 2) ukrainische Kulturgeschichte, indem es das komplexe Zusammenspiel zwischen künstlerischem Ausdruck und gesellschaftspolitischer Unterdrückung beleuchtet; und 3) Traumastudien durch Einführung einer neuen Fallstudie zur antizipatorischen Konstruktion des kulturellen Traumas.
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Ukrainisches poetisches Kino, Trauma-Studien, visuelle Kultur und Politik, psychoanalytische Filmtheorie, Schreibpädagogik
