Reading Ukraine: Stories of Identity, Conflict, and Culture 3700-AL-SICC-qDP
As Ukraine – Europe’s largest country – has become a central focus of global attention, there is a growing need to better understand its culture, politics, and society. Yet Ukraine often remains misunderstood: where does it stand between East and West? How should we interpret the transformations since independence? And how have history and culture shaped contemporary Ukrainian identity?
This course addresses these questions through literature as a key lens. By reading Ukrainian texts in English translation, students will explore how writers have responded to major historical moments and ongoing conflict, and how literature reflects and shapes cultural values and social change. No prior knowledge of the Ukrainian language is required.
Koordynatorzy przedmiotu
Rodzaj przedmiotu
Efekty uczenia się
• student develops a nuanced understanding of Ukrainian cultural identity and its historical transformations (K_W03)
• student interprets literary and cultural texts as reflections of identity, conflict, and social change (K_W04)
• student analyzes the relationship between literature, history, and political events in Ukraine (K_W01)
• student critically engages with key concepts such as identity, memory, nationalism, and cultural representation (K_W02)
• student reflects on the role of literature in shaping collective memory and contemporary cultural discourse (K_W10)
• student draws comparative insights between Ukrainian and other cultural and historical contexts (K_U05)
• student develops skills in close reading and critical analysis of texts in translation (K_U02)
• student analyzes and interprets literary texts using appropriately selected analytical tools, with reference to selected literary theories, contexts, and cultural phenomena (K_U03)
Kryteria oceniania
- Presence in the classroom
- Activity during the seminars
- Participation in discussions
- Reading the obligatory texts
- Presentation
Literatura
Hryhorii Skovoroda “A Conversation Among Five Travellers Concerning Life's True Happiness”
Ivan Kotliarevs’kyi, ‘Eneïda’
Mykola Gogol “The Fair at Sorochintsï”
Taras Shevchenko, ‘My Friendly Epistle’ from The Poetical Works of Taras Shevchenko’
Sholem Aleichem, ‘Chava’ and ‘Get thee gone’
Ivan Franko, ‘Pure Race’
Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky „Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors”
Lesia Ukrainka, ‘Forest Song’
Olha Kobylianska, ‘On Sunday Morning She Gathered Herbs’
Valerian Pidmogylnyi “City”
Mykola Kulish, ‘The People’s Malakhi’
Selection of poems by Vasyl Stus
Olena Stiazhkina, ‘In God’s Language’
Serhiy Zhadan, ‘Voroshilovgrad’
Lyuba Yakimchuk, ‘Apricots of Donbas’
Andrey Kurkov, ‘Ukraine Diaries’
Boris Khersonsky, selections in the anthology ‘Words for War: New Poems from Ukraine’
Oksana Zabużko “Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex”
Stanislav Aseyev „Torture Camp on the Paradise Street”