Paradoxes of the post-colonial dimension In Krytyka, No. 5 (91), 2005, pp. 21-24.

This publication is a review of Larysa Masenko's book Language and Society: The Postcolonial Dimension, published in 2004 by KM Akademiya Publishing House. The author subjects the work to critical analysis, pointing to its excessive focus on the Russification policy of the Russian Empire and the USSR as the sole analytical dimension of the language issue. In his opinion, anti-colonialism is better analyzed within the framework of discourse theory, in particular through the prism of Michel Foucault's approaches.

The author argues that the work lacks a genuine anti-colonial approach, and its greatest flaw is the lack of a clear methodological basis.

Unlike the author of the book, Pavlo Shved does not consider language to be a fundamental basis for the formation of nation states. In addition, he notes that the work does not analyze the linguistic situation in southeastern Ukraine. In his opinion, the task of intellectuals is to develop compromise projects for the normalization of linguistic relations that are acceptable to all linguistic communities.

Separately, the author draws attention to the reductionist interpretation of Ivan Kotlyarevsky as exclusively the author of Eneiida, emphasizing the need to take into account the complexity and multidimensionality of his cultural phenomenon.

According to Shved, excessive attention to the Ukrainian-Russian confrontation leads to the neglect of aspects of Ukrainian-Polish relations.

In conclusion, the author concludes that the book is not a full-fledged scientific study, but only imitates one.

This review was also included in Pavlo Shved's collection of essays What Are We Allowed to Laugh At? And Other Essays, published by Komubuk in 2020.