Buriak Larysa

Women’s artistic autobiographical narrative in the context of contemporary challenges: Discourse of global biography

Section: Theory and methodology of modern biography

Abstract: The aim of the article is to explore visual art projects that reflect the personal life experiences of female artists who were forced to leave their homeland, emigrate, change places of residence, and become “travelers” as a result of 20th-century military conflicts. Visual autobiographical narratives are viewed as a tool for understanding individual biographies and, at the same time, as auniversal module and approach to comprehending global biography and global processes against the backdrop of contemporary challenges. Attention is focused on the works of world-renowned Indian artist Zarina Hashmi and Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum. The research methodology is based on historical and cultural analysis, art comparative studies, biographical and gender approaches, which are fundamentally oriented towards an expanded interdisciplinary interpretation of visual sources. The scientific novelty lies in bringing into the domestic discourse the study of models of women’s autobiographies presented in art works, with the involvement of the concept of “global biography”, which offers a unique perspective on human experience through the lens of global processes. Conclusions. The hypothesis about the relevance and universality of the women’s visual autobiographical narrative, shaped by processes initiated in the world after the end of World War II, has been substantiated. Despite distances, borders, and cultural differences, it reflects shared emotions (a deepsense of sorrow, a search for a new identity, longing for a lost home, a destroyed world, broken families), allowing it to be analyzed within the framework of global biography and reinterpreted in the context of the on going war in Ukraine and the current life experiences and emotions of Ukrainians.

Keywords: global biography, war, refugees, artistic autobiographical narrative, women’s life stories, visual art.

  Full-text PDF    https://doi.org/10.15407/ub.26.012     Citation

• Buriak Larysa (V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, Ukraine, Kyiv, [email protected]) ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4631-844X

Cite:
Buriak Larysa (2025). Women’s artistic autobiographical narrative in the context of contemporary challenges: Discourse of global biography. Biographistica Ukrainica, (26) 12-31. (In Ukrainan). https://doi.org/10.15407/ub.26.012

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