Readings in Ukrainian Literature

Catalog description

This course will introduce students to the masterpieces of modern and post-modern Ukrainian literature as evidence of belonging to the shared European cultural space and identity. Discussion of varied literary texts will reveal the changes in the literary tradition that have taken place throughout the 20th-21st centuries, from symbolism to postmodernism, including intellectual drama and philosophical theater, the avant-garde movement, neo-baroque, existentialism, surrealism, and neomodernism. Literary phenomena will be considered in the context of Soviet totalitarianism and the collapse of empires, as products of intercultural contacts and transnational pathways of collaboration. Using methods of literary anthropology, this course critically reexamines the role of literature in social life and in the formation of a modern cultural community united by the practices of writing, reading, and interpretation. The knowledge of Ukrainian is recommended, but not required.