Department of Slavonic Studies

Paper Uk 2

Studies in Twentieth Century Ukrainian Literature and Film

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS PAPER IS SUSPENDED IN 2013-14. IT WILL BE AVAILABLE AS AN OPTIONAL DISSERTATION TO PART II STUDENTS ONLY.

Please note that the content detailed below is for general reference only for Optional Dissertation work as an introduciton to this paper.

The Paper

Paper Uk2 explores the literary and filmic texts that accompanied the rise of Ukraine from imperial periphery to sovereign state in the 'short twentieth century' (Hobsbawm). Its chronological frame between the 1910s and 1990s, two periods marked by declarations of Ukrainian independence, offers you a synoptic cultural history of Soviet Ukraine cast in relief. Each of the paper's five sections centres on a period of artistic flourishing and considers the implications of the intersection of signification, aesthetic representation, and political power from a broad theoretical perspective.

Key works include:

Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Zapysky kyrpatoho mefistofelia / Notes of a Pug-Nosed Mephistopheles
Oleksandr Dovzhenko, Zvenyhora, Arsenal, Zemlia
Oleksandr Dovzhenko, Ukraina v ohni / Ukraine in Flames
Ivan Bahrianyi, Tyhrolovy / The Hunters and the Hunted
Iurii Illienko, Bilyi ptakh z chornoiu oznakoiu / White Bird with Black Spot
Oksana Zabuzhko, Pol'ovi doslidzhennia z ukrains'koho seksu / Field Notes on Ukrainian Sex
Realising the 'ancient dream': Revolution in Ukraine

This section lays the paper's historical and conceptual foundations and focuses on the work of Volodymyr Vynnychenko -- prose stylist, playwright, and head of the short-lived Directory (Direktoriia) of the Ukrainian National Republic.

'Thoughts against the current': The Soviet Ukrainian Cultural Renaissance

This section explores the way in which literature and film were put to work in 'Ukrainization' (ukraïnizatsiia), an active program of nation-building mandated by the early Soviet state. It focuses on the films and the prose of Oleksandr Dovzhenko, one of the cinematic masters of the twentieth century.

'Ukraine in flames': The cultural legacy of World War II

This section considers the impact of World War II on Ukrainian culture, which was felt in ways symbolic and brutally physical. Pivoting on the prose 'film-tales' (kinopovisti) of Dovzhenko, it examines representations of warfare before taking up works by Ukrainian writers displaced by this violence and conflict -- the members of the refugee Ukrainian Artistic Movement (Mystets'kyi ukrains'kyi rukh, or MUR) based in Germany.

'An awakened muse': The shestydesiatnyky and visimdesiatnyky

This section begins with the visually-arresting films of Ukrainian 'poetic cinema' and considers the role of art as a form of action in defense of individual and group rights in the periods of artistic renewal before and after the Brezhnev Stagnation. It concludes with the 'chimerical prose' (khymerna proza) of Valerii Shevchuk.

Soviet bureaucrats, 'national-masochists', and 'Chicken Kiev': Ukraine in the early 1990s

This section hinges on the event of Ukraine's independence and delves into the introspective, witty, and inventive prose of two of today's most prominent Ukrainian writers, Volodymyr Dibrova and Oksana Zabuzhko.

The Examination

The paper involved a three-hour written examination consisting of three essdys in English. Click here for a sample Uk2 paper.

Paper Uk2 is open to students of all Departments of the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and available in Part II only. Some knowledge of Ukrainian is expected. You are encouraged to register in the Intermediate Ukrainian open course, which is held on Wednesdays during Full Term.