Postmodernist Poetry in Eastern Europe: Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia

Catalog description

Although three Eastern European Slavic-speaking countries - Ukraine, Belarus and Russia - coexisted as "union republics" in the Soviet Union and participated in the formation of Soviet literature, after 1991 their literary course took different directions. In all three cultures postmodernist poetry developed intensively due to the powerful unofficial culture in the late Soviet period. In Ukraine and Belarus, postmodern poetry has become a space for critical reflection on nation-building processes. In Russia, this poetry has largely become a space of resistance to the neo-Soviet narratives of hegemony and expansion propagated by Putin's regime. Students will study the aesthetics of postmodernism and the Eastern European contribution to postmodernist poetics and discuss the political significance of poetry in contemporary Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Russian societies. All assignments in English translation. Knowledge of Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian is not required.