THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR AND METAMODERN STRUCTURE OF FEELING

Abstract

The study takes into the consideration the existing dynamic relationship between metamodernism and the Russia-Ukraine war. The article aims to draw the parallels between metamodern structure of feeling and the harsh reality of war in Ukraine. The author has summarized the conceptual foundations of metamodernism and its paradigmatic benchmarks such as historicity, affect, and depth. It has been argued that these markers of metamodernism, conceptualized by Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker, have intensified in the context of the Russia-Ukraine war. In particular, the past and the narrative of a nation problematized by the postmodern thinkers are re-activated within the Russia-Ukraine war. They are necessary to tie the past with our present and our future as well as to join disconnected presents. Metamodern historicity compensates historical amnesia of postmodernism and gives grounds to imagine a historical moment. Affect as a metamodern intensity through which we articulate the emotional reactions and responses has gained new currency during the Russia-Ukrainian war. Thousands of Ukrainian refugees are receiving help and support from the governments of different countries and people across the world. This situation exemplifies a desire of metamodern subjectivity for a meaningful personal emotional experience and interconnectedness. It has been concluded that metamodern logic has been forged during the Russia-Ukraine war and metamodern touchstones (historicity, affect, and depth) are contextualized in the reality of the 21st-century barbaric bloodshed. Moreover, the Russia-Ukraine war has disclosed that the intellectual life under the postmodern negation of grand narratives, truth, tradition, center, and other categories led us to intellectual and practical dead ends. The clash of civilizations that we experience today confirms the end of postmodern skepticism and irony, fragmentation, and playfulness. The postmodern logic blocked out our ability to respond to the tragedies and deaths brought by the war. We need a metamodern return to emotionality and sincerity to heal the traumas of war.