METAMODERN ETHICS AND THE FORMATION OF A EUROPEAN CULTURE OF TOLERANCE: CONTEMPORARY UKRAINIAN CULTURE IN A POST-TRAUMATIC CONTEXT

Abstract

This article examines the transformation of humanistic values in contemporary Ukrainian culture through the lens of the metamodern paradigm and contemporary European studies of tolerance. The relevance of the study stems from the urgent need to reconsider traditional models of tolerance in the context of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, post-traumatic social transformations, the decolonization of cultural space, and Ukraine's integration into the European humanitarian community. The study aims to identify the conceptual foundations of metamodern ethics as one of the key mechanisms for shaping a new model of tolerance within contemporary Ukrainian culture. The research is based on an interdisciplinary methodology that combines hermeneutic, cultural-historical, comparative-typological, and axiological approaches with the theoretical frameworks of postcolonial studies, metamodernism, and contemporary European theories of tolerance. The article traces the evolution of European models of tolerance and demonstrates their methodological affinity with the principles of metamodern culture. It identifies the principal cultural markers of metamodern ethics in contemporary Ukrainian culture, including new sincerity, the ethics of care, social solidarity, post-traumatic embodiment, the decolonization of cultural memory, inclusiveness, responsibility, and critical hope. Using Iryna Tsilyk's poem Hamam as a case study, the article explores a literary model of negotiating the boundaries of tolerance, responsibility, memory, and encounters with the Other in the context of wartime experience. The scholarly novelty of the study lies in its proposed conceptual synthesis of metamodern theory and contemporary European studies of tolerance as an interpretative framework for contemporary Ukrainian culture. The findings demonstrate that Ukrainian cultural experience not only contributes to Ukraine's integration into the European humanitarian space but also actively expands contemporary understandings of democratic values, responsible coexistence, and humanistic practices of post-war recovery.