@inbook{4f61111138824ff19f5aaa622444fc3c,
title = "Democratic Futures, Utopia, and the Literary Imagination of Contemporary Ukraine",
abstract = "This chapter explores the enduring presence of utopia in the Eastern European context, with a specific focus on contemporary Ukraine in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the current Russian-Ukrainian War. Despite the widespread popular skepticism toward utopian projects, a resurgence of utopian longing for a democratic future persists, as is particularly evident in cultural manifestations. Drawing from the broad understanding of utopia as a desire for a better future, the chapter posits that, in the cultural field, the utopian genre today is not limited to any particular form. At the same time, one modality of formal expression{\textemdash}that of satire{\textemdash}has acquired prominence as an artistic vehicle for articulating utopian desire in contemporary Ukraine.",
keywords = "Eastern Europe, Satire, Ukrainian utopia, Utopian laughter",
author = "Natalya Bekhta",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.",
year = "2025",
doi = "10.1007/978-3-031-89913-3\_12",
language = "English",
isbn = "978-3-031-89912-6",
series = "Palgrave Studies in Utopianism",
publisher = "Palgrave Macmillan",
pages = "213--229",
editor = "Zsolt Czig{\'a}nyik and Iva Dimovska",
booktitle = "Utopia and Democracy : Theories, Practices, Fictions",
}