Odesa-teksten

This article examines the transformation of the Odesa Text in independent Ukraine. It traces three coexisting modalities: a post-Soviet nostalgic vision rooted in Odesa’s Russophone and Soviet past; a reinterpretation that challenges the old Odesa myth and foregrounds Ukrainian history and new urban spaces; and a wartime Odesa Text shaped by Russia’s invasion and the importance of testimony. The article demonstrates how different types of the Odesa Text reflect different versions of “selective cosmopolitanism” and forms of self-identification.