A Subaltern That Sings:
From Sound Resistance to Musical Diplomacy in Wartime Ukraine

A project developed within CU-CNRS Tandem Program supported by Charles University, CNRS and CEFRES

Project principal investigators: Valeria Korablyova, Louisa Martin-Chevalier

The joint TANDEM project “A Subaltern That Sings: From Sound Resistance to Musical Diplomacy in Wartime Ukraine” by Dr Valeria Korablyova and Dr Louisa Martin-Chevalier is dedicated to the musical dimension of Ukrainian resistance as a vehicle for escaping the subaltern position of a double periphery in the blind spot between the EU and Russia. The overlap between musical production and political resistance has always been indicative of the Ukrainian public scene: from the musical underground in late Soviet times to the iconic songs codifying the core meanings behind the mass protests. By co-imagining future-oriented sovereign imaginaries in unison and making them audible, people manifest themselves as sovereign citizens and create affective ties among themselves and with others across national borders who sympathize with their cause. Importantly, by the same token, they prefigure and bring about a new political reality.

The project co-hosted by CEFRES and Charles University is fundamentally transdisciplinary: it develops at the intersection of musicology, political theory, and cultural anthropology, with a specific focus on postcolonial studies and contentious politics.

Its main output will be academic publications; the international symposium “Sound Resistance in Ukraine: From the Maidan to the All-Out War” with a special residency for Ukrainian composers; a digital archive of musical works. Dr Korablyova and Dr Martin-Chevalier will co-teach a research seminar at CEFRES “Performative politics: agonistic and antagonistic”. 

Image: “Markiyan Macekh playing the piano on 7/12/2013 in Bankova street (Kyiv)”, photo by Andrey Meakovsky & Oleg Macekh