The Writer and Society in Post-Soviet Ukraine

CEELBAS | Cultural Processes in Eastern Europe

In association with

Ukrainian Institute, London
British Ukrainian Society
Ukrainian International Airlines

The Event

The Authors’ Forum took place on 19 June at the Ukrainian Institute, Holland Park, London. The event was organised by the CEELBAS Postdoctoral Fellow in Cultural Processes, Dr Robert Pyrah, with principal sponsorship from CEELBAS in conjunction with the Ukrainian Institute, British Ukrainian Society, and Ukraine International Airlines.

The forum was opened by Prof. Robin Aizlewood, Director of CEELBAS and the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES). Robert Pyrah (St. Antony’s College, Oxford) thanked the co-organisers, including Marta Jenkala of the Ukrainian Institute and Olga Kerziouk of the British Library, and introduced both discussant Uilleam Blacker (UCL-SSEES), and authors: Andrei Kurkov, Kateryna Khinkulova, Rio Kunder.

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Speakers and organisers, clockwise, L-R:

Megan Burke, British Ukrainian Society;
Robert Pyrah, CEELBAS;
Andrei Kurkov;
Uilleam Blacker, SSEES-UCL;
Marta Jenkala, Ukrainian Inst.;
Olga Kerziouk, British Library;
Rio Kunder;
Kateryna Khinkulova

The panel addressed an audience of approx. 70 guests on the topic of ‘The Writer and Society in Post-Soviet Ukraine’, each approaching this theme from a unique angle, speaking for approx. 15 minutes each, before group discussion and questions.

Key topics under discussion:

• What is ‘Ukrainian Literature’? Tensions and contradictions inherent in the label, and problems involved in constructing a literary canon;
• the perceived social and political role of the writer in post-Communist Ukraine;
• the nature of ‘the literary industry’ in Ukraine, as distinct from across the border in Russia or indeed in western Europe;
• tensions between cosmopolitanism and parochialism in Ukraine’s literary establishment;
• the ‘diasporic experience’ in Ukrainian literature

Panelists and presentations

Andrei Kurkov (above, left) is Ukraine's best-known contemporary writer. His novels, including the bestselling Death and the Penguin, have enjoyed huge international success. Kurkov was born in the Leningrad region of Russia, but has spent most of his life in Kyiv. The tense balance of these two cultures, Russian and Ukrainian, is one of the characteristic features of his work. Although he writes in Russian, Kurkov's work is very much informed by his Ukrainian experience. Kurkov's fiction is at once accessible, entertaining and thought-provoking.

Andrei’s address concerned the nature of the literary establishment in Ukraine, and its relatively small size; although he ended on a note of cautious optimism for its future development, noting the embrace of minority languages like Tartar under the label of ‘Ukrainian literature’, and the arrival of a new, ‘younger generation’ of writers, in particular female writers.

Panelist Katerina Khinkulova (above, center) is a writer and broadcaster from Kyiv, working in the UK. She has published two novels, 36 Songs about Life, and Drifters, or Lubomyr Kasyn, Kasia Bon and their acquaintances. 36 Songs deals with the experience of a young Ukrainian woman trying to make her life abroad, in London. Khinkulova’s work is also steeped in the cultures to which she feels closest, Ukrainian and English, and slips seamlessly between them, giving an intriguing narrative point of view that is at once estranged and involved, a point of view that only the experience of diasporic existence can provide.

Katerina read an extract from a new work, in English, and spoke about her position as a ‘Ukrainian’ author based in Britain.

Rio Kunder (above, right) is a nom de plume of the poet known in Ukraine as SemEn LybOn. As part of the group Propala Hramota, Lybon was one of the leading lights in the mini-revolution in Ukrainian poetry which took place in the late 1980s and early 1990s, introducing a new, playful, carnivalesque aesthetic into the solemn stand-off between official Soviet and Ukrainian oppositionist literatures. In 1991 Kunder left Ukraine for the UK, where he wrote a PhD in literature at the University of Leeds. Under the new alias of Rio Kunder he published the debut novel Panicoffski, which combines its author’s Ukrainian roots, his love of Latin-American culture, particularly Salsa dancing, and his experience of his adopted homeland, England, resulting in a playful, at times explosive mixture.

Kunder also read an extract from Panicoffski, where the protagonist is confronted by a baffling array of questions and cliches about his country of origin, presented in satirical form.

Group discussion

The Group discussion, led by Uilleam Blacker, concerned mainly the question of Ukrainian literature, its status, and the authors’ own perpectives on the country.

Key conclusions:

• ‘Ukrainian literature’ appears to be a mutable phenomenon, potentially applicable to literature not only written in Ukrainian, but also Russian, English and Tartar, according to the thematic concerns of the author or the political standpoint of the receiver (and/or publishing house);
• Ukraine’s literary scene is relatively underdeveloped compared with Russia or elsewhere in Europe, which has two main consequences: 
     - that it is therefore fairly easy (compared with, e.g. in the United Kingdom) for aspiring authors to publish their works; 
     - that works of lesser quality, unfortunately, can find their way into print relatively easily;
• Ukrainian works tend to appear – both in Ukraine and abroad (e.g. Germany’s Suhrkamp) – in series devoted to themes or groups of authors / works, e.g. by country of origin, which also contributes in some cases to the low quality of some literary output;
• The diaspora experience in literature is an important phenomenon, but as portrayed with great commercial success by Marina Lewycka and others, has to some extent been perceived negatively or at least sceptically on Ukraine’s literary scene for allegedly perpetuating outdated stereotypes.

The discussion was followed by a drinks reception. For more images of the event, please see photographs

Media Coverage

The event was covered in detail by the Ukrainian diaspora press, Ukrainska Dumka (London June 2008). Further coverage: BBC Ukrainian Service; piece by A. Kurkov for Khreshchatyk.

Cancellations

L’viv-based writer Natalka Snyadanko cancelled due to illness; Yuri Andrukhovich also accepted our invitation to present at the forum, but was ultimately unable to attend.

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