Vasyl Stus: Life in Creativity

Vasyl Stus: Life in Creativity
Author: Dmytro Stus
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2021-11-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3838216318

How to explain the mystery of fame? Many once well-known people who spent much of their lives at the core of historic events have fallen into oblivion since. The brilliant East Ukrainian poet and Soviet-era dissident Vasyl Stus (1938-85) became renowned only after his reburial in late Soviet Ukraine in 1989. What are the reasons for the widespread admiration for him in post-Soviet Ukrainian society? The exceptional beauty of his poetry? His stunning courage and selflessness as a Soviet dissident? The irreconcilability of his position as a human being? Or/and Vasyl Stus’ ability to feel the pain of others as his own? Trying to answer these and other questions, the poet’s son and literary scholar Dmytro Stus masterfully combines a cultural and biographical study with private recollections and observations of his father. The book offers a sometimes-paradoxical merger of genres mixing academic analysis with novelistic narration. It shows Vasyl Stus through the eyes of his son and researcher against the background of twentieth-century Ukrainian “belated” emergence as a nation-state. In 2007, the Ukrainian edition of this book won Ukraine’s prestigious Shevchenko National Prize.

Beau Monde on Empire’s Edge

Beau Monde on Empire’s Edge
Author: Mayhill C. Fowler
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2017-05-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 1487513445

In Beau Monde on Empire’s Edge, Mayhill C. Fowler tells the story of the rise and fall of a group of men who created culture both Soviet and Ukrainian. This collective biography showcases new aspects of the politics of cultural production in the Soviet Union by focusing on theater and on the multi-ethnic borderlands. Unlike their contemporaries in Moscow or Leningrad, these artists from the regions have been all but forgotten despite the quality of their art. Beau Monde restores the periphery to the center of Soviet culture. Sources in Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, and Yiddish highlight the important multi-ethnic context and the challenges inherent in constructing Ukrainian culture in a place of Ukrainians, Russians, Poles, and Jews. Beau Monde on Empire’s Edge traces the growing overlap between the arts and the state in the early Soviet years, and explains the intertwining of politics and culture in the region today.

Ukrainian Dissidents: An Anthology of Texts

Ukrainian Dissidents: An Anthology of Texts
Author: Oleksii Stus, Dmytro Finberg, Leonid Sinchenko
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 412
Release: 2021-03-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 3838215516

This anthology of seminal texts documents the development of the post-war anti-Soviet Ukrainian dissident movement. The collection is designed to introduce, via some crucial primary sources, Western and other non-Ukrainian readers to various forms of Ukrainian opposition to the communist regime. Stories of ideas and personal undertakings are unfolding before the reader in a vivid pulsation of texts that testify for themselves. The anthology gathers contributions from different genres. They range from poetry, public speeches, and samvydav—uncensored, self-published—texts to court speeches. They come from dissidents who were held in jails, special psychiatric hospitals (for not accepting the official ideology), and prison camps. Finally, they include self-reflections by dissidents on their personal experience of opposing the totalitarian system. This variety of contributions creates a multidimensional picture of the Ukrainian dissident movement—a generation of prominent Ukrainian public and cultural figures who, in one way or another, insisted on their freedom of speech and made history by daring to challenge the official ideology and culture. This remarkable book about the struggle for freedom has been compiled by Oleksii Sinchenko, Dmytro Stus, and Leonid Finberg. Scholarly reviewed by Myroslav Marynovych.

Leaving Shadows

Leaving Shadows
Author: Lisa Grekul
Publisher: University of Alberta
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2005-12-16
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 9780888644527

"On our way home, we stopped in Vegreville for one last look at the Pysanka-and, posing in front of it while my dad pulled out his camera, I wanted to cry. Are we doomed? Click. Is this all we are? Click. How do we drag ourselves out from under the shadow of the giant egg? Click." Conceived in a fervent desire for fresher, sexier images of Ukrainian culture in Canada, and concluding with a new reading of enduring cultural stereotypes, Leaving Shadows is the first Canadian book-length monograph on English Ukrainian writing, with substantive analysis of the writing of Myrna Kostash, Andrew Suknaski, George Ryga, Janice Kulyk Keefer, Vera Lysenko, and Maara Haas.

Ukraine: Perestroika to Independence

Ukraine: Perestroika to Independence
Author: T. Kuzio
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2016-01-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 033398434X

The Ukrainian vote for independence in December 1991 effectively ended the existence of the Soviet Union, and propelled one of Europe's submerged nations on to the world stage. The main theme of the book is the transition in Ukraine from the policies of 'Perestroika' and 'Glasnost' to the ultimate break with Moscow.

Universal Codes of Media in International Political Communications: Emerging Research and Opportunities

Universal Codes of Media in International Political Communications: Emerging Research and Opportunities
Author: Yeromin, Mykola Borysovych
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2020-11-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1799838099

Much like different lenses will give a camera a different view, different forms of media portray different aspects of political relations. Without conveyed messages through audiovisual media, individuals would lose those conveyed messages through sub-textual means. Universal Codes of Media in International Political Communications: Emerging Research and Opportunities provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of audiovisual media and applications within political science. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as media representation, political studies, and international communications, this book is ideally designed for policymakers, administrators, and government officials.

The Literary Field under Communist Rule

The Literary Field under Communist Rule
Author: Aušra Jurgutienė
Publisher: Academic Studies PRess
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2019-06-03
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 164469087X

This volume widens the field of Soviet literature studies by interpreting it as a multinational project, with national literatures acting not as copies of the Russian model, but as creators of a multidimensional literary space. The book proposes a reconsideration of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of literary field and analyzes the interactions of literature, power, and economics under the communist rule. The articles selected include theoretical discussions and case studies from different national literatures presenting different structural elements of the Soviet literary field, as well as phenomena created by the complexity of the field itself, such as the Aesopian language, state of emergency literature, or compromise as the essential element of the writers’ identity.

Religion in the Secular Age

Religion in the Secular Age
Author: Herta Nagl-Docekal
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2023-09-05
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3111247872

What does it mean to be religious believers for people whose living conditions are defined by an increasingly secularized environment? Is the common distinction between faith and knowledge valid? The 21 essays cover approaches from various fields of the humanities. Some explore post-Kantian thoughts, discussing, i.a., American Pragmatism, M. Buber, M. Horkheimer, H. Putnam, J. Habermas, Ch. Taylor and variants of deconstruction, while other essays focus on ways in which the conflict between agnostics and seekers is addressed in US literary works, as in Fl. O’Connor, W. Percy, N. Hawthorne, J. Updike and in novels dealing with pandemics, for instance by L. Wright, E. M. Wiseman and R. Cook. Historical studies examine the intermingling of the sacred and the secular in the American South and neo-scholastic objections to modernity. Theological issues are being re-framed in essays discussing the relevance of pluralism, the relation of religious conviction and public opinion, the situation of scientists who believe and the thoughts of N. Frye and M. McLuhan. Finally, essays pay attention to religious aspects in works of art, e.g. in Ukrainian poetry, G. Mahler’s symphonies and in a TV show presenting new “American Gods” of globalization.

Granta 164: Last Notes

Granta 164: Last Notes
Author: Sigrid Rausing
Publisher: Granta
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2023-07-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 190988958X

Featuring non-fiction by Lydia Davis, Brian Dillon, Wiam El-Tamami, Peter Englund (tr. Sigrid Rausing), Diana Evans, Tabitha Lasley, Adam Mars-Jones, Maartje Scheltens, Anjan Sundaram, Y-Dang Troeung, Ed Vulliamy and Ada Wordsworth. Fiction by Nicola Barker, Mazen Maarouf (tr. Mazen Maarouf with Laura Susijn), Adle Rosenfeld (tr. Jeffrey Zuckerman) and Brywan Washington poetry by Oluwaseun Olayiwola and Martha Sprackland. Photography by Suzie Howell (introduced by A.K. Blakemore), James Berrington and Sama Beydoun. Cover artwork by Etel Adnan.