Svitlana Pidoprygora is a professor at Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University (Mykolaiv, Ukraine). From 2015 to 2018, she did postdoctoral research at Тaras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, and received a Doctor of Philological Sciences in Ukrainian Literature and Theory of Literature in 2018. Based on this research, she published the monograph Ukrainian Experimental Prose of the 20th and early 21st Century: An “Impossible” Literature. The monograph studies the problem of the ‘artistic experiment’ and ‘experimental prose’ in the genesis of Ukrainian and foreign literary discourse. It emphasizes the development of Ukrainian comics and graphic novels. Ukrainian comic books – such as Buywiter by K. Sulyma or Patriot by V. Nazarov – and graphic novels – for example, The Deer by S. Zakharov – form a new paradigm of Ukrainian art and literature. Svitlana Pidoprygora’s research interests include the theory of experimental literature, the theory of visual arts, visual studies, comics studies, and mass culture studies. Svitlana Pidoprygora is a remote Fellow of Prisma Ukraïna (April to July 2022) near Burgas, Bulgaria.
War and Ukrainian Comic Culture
As a Prisma Ukraïna Fellow, Svitlana Pidoprygora will investigate the evolution of the mythological narrative of the ‘Ukrainian superhero’ in the face of constant military threat and war. Using the methods of contemporary comic studies, she will analyze comics and graphic novels by Ukrainian authors, as well as animations and pictures stylized as comics that are posted on social media and impact Ukrainian comic culture. Comics as a cultural phenomenon deserve close attention as an indicator of the moods and tastes of society, and a tool of influence with an enormous communicative potential. The project aims to examine the narrative that during the war, every Ukrainian positions themself as a superhero and acquires exceptional superpowers while defending their land. It also seeks to trace the mechanisms of propaganda used in comics and graphic novels that influence mass consciousness, serve to affirm the national myth, and aim to overcome anti-Ukrainian propaganda.
