Poetry of independent Ukraine with Iryna Starovoyt | Literatura 2024

Ukrainian poetry of independence: Natalka Bilotserkivets, Serhii Zhadan, Marianna Kiyanovska and Kateryna Kalytko

NB: registration will close 10 minutes before the seminar, 18:20 BST on 18 July.

In the seventh seminar of the Literatura course, Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at the Ukrainian Catholic University, Iryna Starovoyt, will introduce you to the broader context of contemporary Ukrainian literature through the poetry of independence. 

‘Four living poets from three different generations of Ukrainian culture (the post-Soviet generation, the generation who made their debut in the first year of Ukraine’s independence, and the generation of the Millenium, or contemporaries of the Orange Revolution) will give us the pretext to talk about the price and value of independence for people and nations; about the ability of contemporary Ukrainians to grow up quickly, unite, and resist; about the existential thickness of our time; and about the new profane and the new sacred in civil political discourse, along with the role and purpose of poets and poetry in such epoch-making circumstances.

These texts set in motion layers of chivalric poetry, psalms, incantations, laments, fairy tales, the archetypes of the ancient world and Ukrainian folklore. We are in a religious moment which fuels civic political discourse. In this discourse, this new sacredness is articulated, and the new profane is shattered. Powerful work with imagination and language goes on in a metamorphic dimension. There will be a chance in this seminar to tackle this dimension, as well as an important transition in Ukrainian poetry from tragic to epic during the many years of war.’