Meeting: “The Mythos of the City. Modern Ukrainian Literature”

April 22, 6 pm

Since 2023, there has been a big white spot on a Polish map of Ukrainian literature. Modern prose from Ukraine wasn't present in Polish translations from foreign languages. Today, this has changed.

In the last year, there were the following canonical Ukrainian novels published on the Polish market: “The City” by Valerian Pidmohylny, “Doctor Serafikus,” “Without Foundation,” and “Girl with a Teddy Bear” by Wiktor Petrow-Domontovych, and “Doctor Leonardo's Travel…” by Mike Johannsen. Those novels, which laid the foundation for the development of Ukrainian literature in the 20th century, were eradicated by the Stalinists. Today, they are coming back as a part of cultural fashion.

How did the generation of the '20s, also called the “Executed Renaissance,” re-formulate Ukrainian culture? How do Ukrainian modernists speak about the city, nature, and humans? We will discuss this with translators of Ukrainian literature.

Guests:

Marcin Gaczkowski, PhD

Paweł Krupa, PhD

Maciej Piotrowski

Host:

Paulina Małochleb, PhD

Venue:

The International Culture Centre in Krakow, Main Square 25, the Panoramic Hall (5th floor)

The meeting will be interpreted into the Polish Sign Language and will not be transmitted.

Bio:

Marcin Gaczkowski, PhD – literary scholar, historian, publicist, radio journalist, Ukrainian literature translator, enthusiast of seen and unseen Kyiv. Translator of “The City” by Valerian Pidmohylny and works of Wasyl Stus, Wolodymyr Rafiejenko, and Stanislav Asiejev.

Paweł Krupa, PhD – philologist, literary expert, member of the editorial team of the "Nowa Ukraina. Zeszyty historyczno-politologiczne” magazine. He works at the Institute of Eastern Slavonic Studies at the Jagiellonian University. His research covers such issues as the literary debate of the 1920s, Ukrainian modernism, the journalism of Mykola Khvylovy, and the work of Viktor Platonovych Petrov.

Paulina Małochleb, PhD – critic and literary scholar. Lecturer at the Jagiellionian University, author of the book “Przepisywanie historii. Powstanie styczniowe w literaturze.”

Maciej Piotrowski – historian and expert in Ukrainian studies by education, cultural agitator by passion. Translator of “Doctor Leonardo's Travel…” by Mike Johannsen and works of Vasyl Barka, Hryhorija Chuba, and Andrij Bondar.

The partners of the event are the College of Eastern Europe and the New Eastern Europe portal.