Literature and the shaping of Ukrainian national identity in the 19th century 3222-30LUTN3K-N

I. Theoretical and Methodological Introduction
• Definitions of National Identity: The nation as an "imagined community" (B. Anderson); ethnos versus the modern political nation.
• Literature as a Nation-Building Institution: The role of the literary text in the absence of statehood; the concept of the subaltern and the reclaiming of one's own voice.
• The Geopolitical Context of the Turn of the Centuries: Political and cultural shifts at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century following the liquidation of the Hetmanate's autonomy and the destruction of the Zaporozhian Sich by the Tsarist regime.
II. The Modern Turning Point: The Nobilitation of Language and the Common People (Late 18th Century – 1820s)
• The Beginnings of Modern Literature as an Act of Linguistic Emancipation: The predominance of poetry and drama. Ivan Kotliarevsky’s Eneida and its deep national character—the literary resurrection of the Cossack ethos under a classical guise.
• The Travesty-Burlesque Trend: Coding identity and circumventing censorship through "low" literary forms (Kotliarevshchyna).
• Cultural Topography—The Role of Poltava: Poltava as the first center of literary life. The birth of new drama and theater in Ukraine (Poltava, Kharkiv)—the works of I. Kotliarevsky and H. Kvitka-Osnovianenko (comic opera, comedy of manners) as a psychological portrait of society.
• Overcoming the Provincial Complex in Prose: The first prose works of H. Kvitka-Osnovianenko. The dominance of Sentimentalism as an attempt to prove the aesthetic equivalence of the Ukrainian language in expressing "sublime feelings."
• The Crucible of the Modern Intelligentsia: The establishment and significance of Kharkiv University (1805) for the institutional development of Ukrainian culture and science. The beginnings of the press and its role in building social cohesion.
• Ukrainian Preromanticism in a European Context: The works of P. Hulak-Artemovsky. Adaptations of Polish and German ballads, translation activities (propagating the works of A. Mickiewicz) as an opening of the culture to Western models.
III. The Romantic Breakthrough and the "Invention of Tradition" (1820s–1840s)
• From Burlesque to Seriousness: Ideological attempts to move away from Kotliarevshchyna toward high literature. The birth of Ukrainian Romanticism.
• The Archiving of Memory as a Foundation of Identity: The development of modern social, philosophical, and religious thought. The myth-making role of the History of the Rus' and the earliest historical scholarship.
• Folklore as the Sacred Text of the Nation: Ethnographic interests; pioneering collections of folk songs by M. Tsertelev and M. Maksymovych. The emergence of almanacs as spaces for communal consolidation. Social determinants of the Romantic breakthrough.
• The Geography of Ukrainian Romanticism: The evolution, periodization, and regional specificity of the movement:
The Kharkiv Romantic School (1820s–1830s): (L. Borovykovsky, M. Kostomarov, A. Metlynsky, et al.). The sentimental-morbid character of poetry, existential dread over the extinction of the nation, and the idealization of the past. The historical tragedies of M. Kostomarov.
Romanticism in Galicia (1830s): National awakening in the grip of Polish cultural dominance and Austrian administration. The activities of the "Ruthenian Triad" (M. Shashkevych, I. Vahylevych, Ya. Holovatsky) in education, publishing, and scholarship. The almanac Rusalka Dnistrova (1837) as a manifesto of breaking with Old Church Slavonic and the birth of modern literature in Galicia.
The Kyiv Period (1830s–1850s): The transition from cultural Romanticism to political identity. The emergence, independence program, and historical significance of the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius.
IV. Taras Shevchenko—Demiurge and Codifier of the Nation
• Shevchenko as an Icon and an Institution: The life and work of the central figure in the Ukrainian cultural universe; the process of establishing his status as the national bard (prokrok / viescz).
• Poetic Evolution and the Maturation of the National Idea: The path from Romantic folklorism to radical political poetry and historiosophy. Richness of forms (lyrics, satire, pamphlet, historical-philosophical mystery play).
• Reckoning with History and the Deconstruction of Imperial Myths: The historical-patriotic trend. Anti-Tsarist and social radicalism (the anti-colonial dimension of the poems The Dream and The Caucasus). The reshaping of Ukrainian politics of memory—the shifting stance toward the figure of Bohdan Khmelnytsky (critique of the Treaty of Pereyaslav).
• The Bible and Ukrainian Messianism: Biblical and religious motifs as a tool for describing the nation's suffering and prophesying its resurrection. Shifting views on the role of the poet as a guide for the community.
• Europeanization Through Originality: Shevchenko’s role in definitively establishing a self-sustained Ukrainian literature of European stature.
• Romantic Genology in the Service of Identity: Genre development and transformation (ballad, dumka, poem, historical tragedy, romantic prose) as evidence of the maturity of the literary system.
V. Facing Tsarist Prohibitions: The Struggle for Survival and the Realist Turn (Second Half of the 19th Century)
• Identity Under Oppression and Political Trauma: Characteristics of socio-political processes (the Emancipation Reform of 1861). Attempts at systemic culturicide and linguicide: the Valuev Circular (1863) and the Ems Ukaz (1876) as barriers to identity development; the phenomenon of transferring publishing activities to Galicia (the "Ukrainian Piedmont").
• Consolidation of the Elites: The role of the St. Petersburg-based journal Osnova (1860s) as a nationwide platform for discussion and integration.
• Aesthetic Evolution as a Search for Social Truth: The specificity of Ukrainian Realism—the path from the ethnographic-romantic trend to critical Naturalism and social engagement.
VI. Iwan Franko and the Modernization of Identity (Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries)
• The Shift from Myth to Organic Work: The career of Ivan Franko as the second most vital figure in the Ukrainian pantheon. The concept of "programmatic service to the nation" replacing Romantic prophetism. The writer as an institution: poet, prose writer, playwright, scholar, and publicist.
• A New Era of Ukrainian Poetry: The thematic and formal diversity of Franko’s lyric poetry. The poem Moses as a philosophical and historiosophical study of a nation emerging from a colonial mentality.
• Socialism, Naturalism, and the Emancipation of the People: Tendentious-publicistic prose and an innovative approach to working-class themes (Boryslav Is Laughing). The economic emancipation of the peasantry and workers as a prerequisite for building a modern nation.
• In Dialogue and Conflict with Neighbors: Multi-layered, complex relations between Franko and the Poles. His literary creation and journalism in the Polish language as an attempt to emancipate Ukrainian identity within multicultural Galicia, and to definitively sever the umbilical cord of Polish cultural dominance.

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