Voices of Resilience: Exploring Agency in Contemporary Slavic Poetry
The project "Voices of Resilience" examines agency and resilience in contemporary poetry from Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and Bosnia. The project is financed by the Gerda Henkel Foundation.
Voices of Resilience: Exploring Agency in Contemporary Slavic Poetry
The project “Voices of Resilience: Exploring Agency in Contemporary Slavic Poetry”, funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation, examines the construction of agency in contemporary Slavic poetry, particularly in the context of flight, displacement and war experiences.
Against the backdrop of the Russian invasion in 2022 and the beginning of the war back in 2014, the people of Ukraine have shown an unprecedented degree of agency and subjectivity. The project analyses how lyrical subjects articulate agency in poems and how poetic practices promote resilience under extreme conditions. Particular attention is paid to female or female-connoted poetic figures, as many of those displaced by war and violence are women whose writing, speaking and literary practices have an additional dimension of agency rooted in gender.
In addition, a comparative approach is taken to examine experiences of displacement in poetry from Belarus, Poland and Bosnia in order to gain a nuanced picture of agency and resilience in the context of Slavic literatures.
The project team consists of Slavicists Mariya Donska (project leader, post-doc), Julia Jahn (doctoral candidate) and Anna Gierlinger (student assistant).
Agency in Contemporary Ukrainian Poetry: Project Presentation at BASEES 2026
On 12 April 2026, project leader Dr Mariya Donska presented the initial research findings of the “Voices of Resilience” project at the annual conference of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES) at the University of Birmingham.
In her presentation, Mariya Donska focused on the significance of agency in contemporary Ukrainian poetry and demonstrated how poetry in Ukraine has become a crucial medium of resilience. Using selected works by Mariana Savka, Halyna Kruk, Vasyl Makhno and Viktoriia Amelina, she analysed how poetic texts enact two types of agency – practical and semiotic agency – strengthen the ability to express one’s own feelings and intentions (voice), and make decolonial strategies visible through formal means such as intertextuality or shifts in language.
A vivid example of this was provided by the artist Dina Chmuzh from Kharkiv, who writes poems on plywood panels from destroyed houses, thereby bringing poetry into the public space and into people’s everyday lives. Donska also emphasised the importance of poetic practices in everyday life: in qualitative interviews, respondents described how reciting poetry in crisis situations can provide consolation and foster resilience.
The lecture led to a stimulating discussion with international colleagues.
Solidarity for students, research and teaching: “Voices of Resilience” at the demonstration against budget cuts in Austria
Staff from the “Voices of Resilience” project also took part in the demonstration on 28 May against the planned budget cuts in the Austrian university system. Together with thousands of students and researchers from all Styrian universities, we drew attention to the serious consequences for research, teaching and Styria’s position as a centre of science.
With “Voices of Resilience”, we aim to make a significant contribution highlighting the importance of Slavic literatures in the context of resistance and resilience.
