Cossacks or Battle Turtles
Reading Ukraine
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
For decades, Ukrainian literature was a matter for a few experts. Only the end of the East-West conflict cleared the view to the mysterious literary terrain east of Poland. The appearance of Yuri Andrukhovych’s essays was like a bombshell. Here was a feeling narrator and architect of memory at work amid the ruins. Lviv (Lemberg) and Chernivtsi (Czernowitz), the Carpathians and eastern Galicia emerged from obscurity. The Orange Revolution, as a moment in history, encouraged interest in literature from Ukraine. In Andrukhovych’s wake, Oksana Zabuzhko, Serhii Zhadan, and Liubko Deresh seized on this favourable moment. In the meantime, dozens of works have appeared. The gold fever has passed. It will now be proven whether Ukrainian literature has the potential to hold its own internationally.
(Osteuropa 2-4/2010, pp. 49–62)