RISING UP WITH “KALYNA”: EXAMINING THE INVITATIONAL RHETORIC OF “ОЙ У ЛУЗІ ЧЕРВОНА КАЛИНА” AS A SOCIAL MEDIA RESPONSE TO THE RUSSIAN WAR IN UKRAINE.


Since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, 2022, “Ой у лузі червона калина” (“Oh, the red viburnum in the meadow”) has become a symbol of the Ukrainian people’s resistance and unity against the aggressor. When Ukrainian pop-musician Andriy Khlyvnyuk posted his performance of the song on Instagram, multiple social media platforms exploded with numerous mashup versions of the song, all manifesting a symbolic counterargument toward the war narrative of the attacker. Employing invitational rhetoric as our framework, we analyze three video products created within what we call the “Kalyna” movement, one featuring the original performance by Khlyvnyuk along with other Ukrainian celebrities, and two others that stem from Estonia and Georgia. We suggest that, rather than serving as a direct call to arms, the song’s renditions reflect the performers’ own negotiation of their national selfhood and thus enact support of a nation under assault by celebrating its history and its right to freedom. We conclude that the media content produced in the participatory culture of the “Kalyna” movement all but validates its voluntary participants’ perspectives on issues of independence, cultural identity, and human and national values.