Constructing Victimization

Abstract

The paper seeks to develop new avenues for a study of the Ukrainian press in the West European languages in Europe during the first quarter of the twentieth century. For the first time ever, we employ here the framing perspective for the study of the victimization grand-narrative of Ukrainians in their foreign-language print media in Europe. We examine the victimization of the Ukrainian people in terms of ‘human interest’, ‘conflict’ and ‘morality’ frames in the press discourse of the respective historical periods: colonial (1901–1918), postcolonial (1919–1921), and neo-colonial (1921/1922–1926). We argue that victimization grand-narrative in the press was used purposefully to evoke compassion and empathy from the West European public opinion for the Ukrainian nation as ‘collective’ victim (‘oppressed nation’). Additionally, this research proves that victimization of Ukrainians geared at securing support and solidarity for their nation-state aspirations from the European opinion leaders.