#  Sharovarshchyna: Sonic Contestations of Ukrainian Wildness 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **March 31, 2021** 

 12:00PM - 01:15PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **YouTube (public); Zoom (registration required)**  



 

 



 

 **Maria Sonevytsky**, Assistant Professor, Department of Music at UC Berkeley   
Moderated by **Emily Channell-Justice**, Director, Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program

 [Register for the Zoom session](https://form.jotform.com/210594910358963) (space is limited) or [watch live on YouTube](https://youtu.be/0EMY4bPVHt4).

##  ![Ruslana Eurovision](/sites/g/files/omnuum4931/files/huri/files/sonevytsky_fig01_01.jpg)

 



##  Abstract

 This presentation considers the spatial, temporal, and sonic dimensions that mark the discourse of *sharovarshchyna* in Ukraine. I define *sharovarshchyna* as a hotly contested conceptual zone grounded in territorialized regional cultural symbols of affiliation, rurality, and authenticity. By first historicizing this discourse within the Soviet regime of state-sanctioned folklore, I show how *sharovarshchyna* feeds on ideas of what I have previously termed “Wildness”—that is, the vital, exoticized, rural, or unknown sounds and expressive forms of Ukraine. I then examine the discourse of *sharovarshchyna* that intersects with two prominent Ukrainian cultural-musical exports—Ruslana, the 2004 Eurovision champion who rose to prominence with her “Wild Dances”; and DakhaBrakha, darlings of the “world music” industry. I argue that this conceptual zone of *sharovarshchyna* underscores Ukraine’s geopolitical liminality, and therefore serves as a useful analytic to unsettle trendy frameworks of the “Global South.”

##  About the Speaker

   ![Maria Sonevytsky](/sites/g/files/omnuum4931/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/huri/files/sonevytsky_photo_250.jpg?itok=zQK_ctqV) 

 

Maria Sonevytsky is Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her first book, *[Wild Music: Sound and Sovereignty in Ukraine](https://www.hfsbooks.com/books/wild-music-sonevytsky/%C2%A0)* (2019, Wesleyan University Press), received the Lewis Lockwood First Book Award from the American Musicological Society in 2020. She is currently working on a short book about Vopli Vidopliassova's _Tantsi_ (for the 33 1/3 series on Bloomsbury), and developing a longer project on Soviet children's music in the Ukrainian SSR.  Wild Music: Sound and Sovereignty in Ukraine is our March 2021 TCUP Book Club selection. [Learn more about Book Club here](https://huri.harvard.edu/news/tcup-reads-maria-sonevytskys-wild-music).

 **[Emily Channell-Justice](/people/emily-channell-justice)** is an anthropologist and the director of HURI's Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program.

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 Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Megan Duncan Smith, HURI Programs Coordinator, at <duncansmith@fas.harvard.edu> in advance of the session (at least two weeks prior, if possible).

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 See also:- [ Seminar in Ukrainian Studies ](/event-type/seminar-ukrainian-studies)
- [ Art and Culture ](/fields-expertise/art-and-culture)
- [ Contemporary Ukraine ](/fields-expertise/contemporary-ukraine)
- [ Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program ](/program/temerty-contemporary-ukraine-program)
 
 

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