Shakespeare as Resistance in the 21st-century Ukraine: Interview of Olha Kvasnytsia, journalist of the newspaper "The Day" with Nicoleta Cinpoes, an ESRA Board member

Abstract

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of russia, the members of European  Shakespeare Research Association (ESRA) have always been in a close contact with Ukrainian academic circles and, especially Shakespeare scholars, providing financial support to the Ukrainian military (in particular, through the volunteer group "Shakespeare"), joining numerous projects of the Ukrainian Shakespeare Center, initiating various events that demonstrate solidarity of the European scientific community with the Ukrainian people. One of these events was the Shakespearean round table held at the initiative of Professor Nicoleta Cinpoes  (University of Worcester, Great Britain) and Doctor Imke Lichterfeld (University of Bonn, Germany) during the biannual ESRA conference (July, 2023).  The set of important issues related to specific perspectives on aid to Ukraine at various levels during the war (such as expansion of the space of people's and cultural diplomacy, academic and scientific cooperation, donations for the purchase of medicines for the front, intellectual volunteering etc.) had been discussed and some fruitful solutions were elaborated.

During the months of the war, several forms of intellectual volunteering introduced by European and American Shakespeareans proved to be successful. The joint British-Ukrainian-Bulgarian project «Flute’s Heartbeat in tune with Ukraine» (M. Dergach, 2022) was one of the most impressive among them. Some European Shakespeare scholars (Professor Michael Dobson, Doctor Kelly Hunter, Professor Boika Sokolova, Professor Nicoleta Cinpoes and others) delivered lectures to the Ukrainian students, took an active part in the events of the annual "Shakespeare Days in Ukraine", in All-Ukrainian Shakespeare contest of student research and creative projects named after Vitaly Keis. The Ukrainian scholars were invited to Western Europe to talk about the necessity of decolonizing knowledge about Ukrainian Shakespeareana (Torkut N, 2023) and form an adequate reception of the russian-Ukrainian war.

The purpose of this publication is to highlight the intellectual and cultural activities of Professor Nicoleta Cinpoes (the University of Worcester), who is one of the powerful promoters of European support for Ukraine. Back in the spring of 2022, she intensified ESRA's constructive communication with Ukrainian Shakespeare scholars and theatre practitioners. And in May 2023, at the invitation of the Ukrainian Shakespeare Center, she came to Ukraine with a series of lectures, attended several Shakespeare performances, and initiated the cooperation of the European Shakespeare Festival Network with the Ivano-Frankivsk National Academic Drama Theater named after Ivan Franko. This is what Olha Kvasnytsia, the journalist of the newspaper "Den", PhD in social communications discusses in the interview with Professor Nicoleta Cinpoes.