Description

Memeing War dives into the lives of ordinary Ukrainians as they face the devastating Russian countrywide invasion beginning in February 2022. To better understand the struggles they endured, Memeing War analyses the war through the study of the tens of thousands of memes that circulated throughout the war. The memes are a mirror of contemporary Ukrainian culture and society, a body of digital folklore, and the book will chronicle how struggles of war are pictured in memes through the lenses of Ukrainian national culture. The memes are at times dark and calling upon gallows humor, to provide Ukrainians both hope and at times comic relief. These memes, though not tangible weapons of war, did help the citizenry carry on through bombings and needless death. The book provides an insider's perspective as Daria Antsybor applies her analysis of memes and folklore to provide a telling account of life in Ukraine. The book will also call upon literature dealing with identity and nation, Michel Bouchard's primary research focus, to explain how memes helped to forge a nation that fought on with memes through the bleakest days. Beginning with the analysis of the emergence of revolutionary memes (Revolution of Dignity also knows as Euromaidan in 2013 rooted in the earlier Orange Revolution) and how this tradition of memeing detonated and mushroomed following Russia's revanchist invasion to undo the legacy of Ukraine's push to democracy and European integration.