Innocent content and other traps
Contemporary Ukraine does not fit into ready-made narratives. “Innocent content and other traps: Ukrainian essays on identity” is a collection of texts by contemporary Ukrainian authors who, through culture, history, language, and art, explore how Ukraine is understood and imagined today — from their own perspective, in their own voice, and beyond simplified frameworks.
This is a book about memory and identity, but also about culture as a space for reclaiming narrative. The contributors reflect both on the legacy of the past and the realities of the present: asking why the Kyiv Psalter remains in St. Petersburg, how and why Russia removed Ukrainian cultural heritage, what traces Soviet monumental propaganda has left behind, and how the language of empire has shaped ways of thinking about reality.
But “Innocent content” is not a book solely about history or war. It is also a story about contemporary Ukrainian culture and its resilience. About museums that become places of support and community in wartime. About literature created and read under a state of emergency. About what Ukrainians have been reading since 24 February 2022. About a new Ukrainian cinema that is taking Russia off the marquee. And about a culture that no longer wants to be told in someone else’s language.
What unites the essays in this volume is a shared distrust of simple answers. This is a book about challenging stereotypes, dismantling ready-made interpretations, and reclaiming the right to tell one’s own story.
For Polish readers, “Innocent content” is not only an encounter with contemporary Ukrainian intellectual thought, but also an opportunity to better understand the experiences, historical references, and cultural codes that shape today’s Ukraine.
The publication was created as part of the Polish-Ukrainian School of Translation “Words to Words”, a project by the Mieroszewski Centre for young translators.
