In the Grip of the Empire: Literature and Imperial Discourse from the Napoleonic Era to the Postcolonial Age

«In the Grip of the Empire» is a comprehensive monograph by Ukrainian-Canadian scholar Myroslav Shkandrij that explores the impact of imperial discourse on Ukrainian literature from the 19th to the 20th centuries. The author examines works by writers from different regions of Ukraine that were part of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires, analyzing how they reflected and relied on imperial ideology and stereotypes. Shkandrij meticulously details the historical and political events that shaped Ukrainian literature throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Employing postcolonial theory and other theoretical approaches to analyze literary texts, Shkandrij makes significant conclusions about the influence of imperial discourse on Ukrainian literature and the formation of Ukrainian national identity.
It is no wonder, then, that Ukrainians today are fighting against Russia's neo-imperial encroachments not only on the battlefield but also in the cultural sphere. Russian imperial discourse on Ukraine has a centuries-old history, and it is this discourse that has produced the thought patterns, templates, and stereotypes that underlie the current war.