We in the context. World literature from Baudelaire to Bob Dylan
The lecture project for teachers of world literature ‘We in the context’ logically continues the tendency started by the course on the Ukrainian classics from Skovoroda to Stus ‘Defined and Redefined’. We invited professional literary critics not to limit their audience to university students but to share their knowledge with teachers (not only world literature teachers but also Ukrainian literature ones and those who teach history turned out to be interested!).
This is a presentation in the popular form of aspects, the coverage of which does not always make textbooks. Lectures on world literature cover the canon from the ‘damned poets’ to Nobel laureates of the last few years.
In addition, there are many parallels between the works of foreign and Ukrainian authors (such as Baudelaire and Rylsky, Mykola Kulish and Brecht). A separate point is the lecture on the tradition of Ukrainian translation – and also the information about what factors influence whether the work will be added to the ‘golden list’ of the best books, as well as the school curriculum.
Each of ten lectures is created by author; it is unique every time, because the lecturer collaborates with the audience, responds to it and, accordingly, is not limited to the text prepared, but continues his or her monologue according to the reaction of the listeners, their level of preparation, questions and answers during the presentation of the material.
Video recordings of lectures are available in the open access – and therefore, accessible to professional audiences and everyone who wants to learn new things regardless of geography and time of day.
Our lecturers:
Serhii Ivaniuk
Candidate of Sciences (Philology), Associate Professor of the Department of Literary Studies at the Kyiv-Mohyla academy
Liudmyla Kiselova
Candidate of Sciences (Philology), Associate Professor of the Department of Literary Studies at the Kyiv-Mohyla academy
Tetiana Oharkova
PhD, Senior Lecturer of the Department of Literary Studies at the Kyiv-Mohyla academy
Rostyslav Semkiv
Associate Professor of the Department of Literary Studies at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Candidate of Sciences (Philology)
Oleksii Sinchenko
Associate Professor of the Department of Ukrainian Literature and Comparative Studies of the B. Hrinchenko Kyiv University, Candidate of Sciences (Philology)
Bohdan Storokha
Candidate of Sciences (Philology), Associate Professor of the Department of Romano-Germanic Philology of the V. Korolenko Poltava National Pedagogical University
ABSOLUTE BOOKS: APPROACHES TO THE FORMATION OF A CANON OF WORLD LITERATURE
What is the canon of world literature, how is the ‘golden list’ of the best books formed – and which ones are included into the school curriculum? Who influences these processes beside scholars and critics? Rostyslav Semkiv tells about what texts were considered the most influential by philosopher Bataille, writer Nabokov, Professor Bloom; and how the lists of the best books in the history of civilization coincide with the tops of book sales.
THE KINGDOM OF THE ‘CURSED POETS’ AND ITS UKRAINIAN MARGINS: FROM BAUDELAIRE TO RYLSKY
Paul Verlaine, writing essays on three ‘cursed poets’ (Corbière, Rimbaud and Mallarmé), hardly assumed how versatile this metaphor would be. Oleksii Sinchenko talks about a whole cluster of European poets who tended to learn about previously unknown fields, new aesthetics, another understanding of art and the image of the artist – and makes parallels with Ukrainian writers who also tried to shock the bourgeoisie and write beyond the classical tradition. Is it possible to draw a line from Baudelaire to Rylsky and Semenko not by quoting poems? Yes, if the details of biographies are no less poetic than collections of works.
FOUR ‘GOGOLS’ OF IRISH LITERATURE: SWIFT, WILDE, JOYCE, BECKETT
Ukrainian and Irish cultures are similar not only in the postcolonial aspect, but also because they managed to survive, win, and give a lot to the world. Rostyslav Semkiv reflects on what literature the author belongs to and how much it depends on his or her self-awareness, details of biography and – important! – on the language of writing – providing the examples of Gogol, Swift, Wilde, Joyce and Beckett. One more milestone point of the lecturer’s story is how to understand Ukrainian literature through the prism of world literature.
KAFKA: A MAN AS A CAUGHT UP ANIMAL
‘The Metamorphosis’ by Franz Kafka is considered an important work of this writer thanks to Vladimir Nabokov; and this is one of the reasons for the novel to be included into the canon of world literature in the Russian and Ukrainian contexts. What else is interesting about Kafka? How does his texts reflect the crises in the self-awareness of the Western civilization of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? How was Kafka influenced, for example, by Charles Darwin? And Freud and Nietzsche? Bohdan Storokha gives a detailed account of the historical and philosophical context of the era and the writer’s biography, focusing on the review of stage works.
THE SILVER AGE OF RUSSIAN POETRY: BLOK, AKHMATOVA, PASTERNAK
Literature of Russian modernism attracts both romantically minded readers and serious researchers. But for a deep understanding, one must possess codes of understanding of the era; here philosophical, mystical, and religious components are all important. Liudmyla Kiselova opens the veil to the secrets of the ‘Silver Age’, which are rarely considered at school. For example, such a ‘female’ poetry by Akhmatova unfolds before us with epic intonations, the quintessence of the female origin, the precision of each phrase – in fact the indecisively separated word can cause a world catastrophe. The writers really believed in it at that times.
BERTOLT BRECHT AND THE EUROPEAN DRAMA OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Bertolt Brecht and Mykola Kulish – what is common and different in the fate of these, undoubtedly, successful playwrights-innovators? How the new theater of the twentieth century differs from the classical tradition? Which way to study dramaturgy in the course of literature is better – to watch the performances or still read the books? Whether the works by Brecht have a place in high school? Serhii Ivaniuk tells about the connection of the new European drama with epic genres and what it is fundamentally different from the tradition we now consider classical – and from which tradition it grows up.
CAMUS AND WORLD WAR. HOW TO RESIST THE ABSURD?
What should an educated person know about Sartre and Camus? What is existentialism? How were the most famous thinkers of the French 20th century formed – and why their works are studied particularly in the course of world literature? Where is the boundary between philosophical treatises and brilliant essays? Tetiana Oharkova tells in a popular form about the philosophy of existentialism and the implementation of its key concepts in essays and fiction, as well as the strange fate of the spokesmen of these ideas.
THE PROSE OF HARSH EXPERIENCE: ERNEST HEMINGWAY
Ernest Hemingway is a writer who knew exactly what he wanted to look like in the eyes of his readers and consistently worked on the creation of an author’s myth. He became a symbol for several generations; he is admired even by those who do not read books at all. Serhii Ivaniuk tells about the Nobel Prize winner as a pop icon on both sides of the ‘iron curtain’, about how severe man’s prose was written and what disappointment the recognized author had faced at the end of his life.
LITERARY TRANSLATION AS A KEY TO CULTURAL CONVERSION: UKRAINIAN TRADITIONS OF TRANSLATION
Ukrainian translators are those who gave a voice to the best works of the world classics of fiction and philosophy. At the same time, work in the field of translation became a test, partly honored: the need to develop language styles that are not sufficiently developed in the native literature (and in everyday life), to overcome the resistance of those who argued that the translation into an understandable language or reading in the original was enough to not work creating an additional set of texts. Oleksii Sinchenko tells about how the translation becomes a test for the native language, how texts receive an opportunity to sound differently, ultimately, about the fact that in Ukraine not only literature is larger than an art form, but a translation also has more weight than craft or creative work.
WORLD LITERATURE AFTER CHORNOBYL AND THE BERLIN WALL
During many lectures of this course it was said what literature looks like after Darwin, Nietzsche and Freud, after the First World War and after Auschwitz; how the culture is influenced by the admiration of narcotic substances and the popularization of philosophy. What literature looks like in our time after fresh disasters, including Chornobyl and the fall of the last empires? Rostyslav Semkiv in the review of relevant books of several decades reflects on ideological changes in modern society, the role of writers as leaders of public opinion, as well as why the Nobel Committee recognized Bob Dylan as a great writer. In addition, this lecture contains a good list of high-quality contemporary books, many of which already available in Ukrainian translations.