THE PHENOMENON AND POETRY OF THE NEW YORK GROUP: DISCOURSES, DISGUISES, AND LIMINALITY MARIA G.REWAKOWCZ A thesis submitted in confonrgty with the requirernents for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Department of SIavic Languages and Literatures, in the University of Toronto National Library Bibliothèque nationale a*i of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. nie Weilimglan OttawaON KlAON4 OnawaON KlAûN4 canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence aiiowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/fïlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni La thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be p~tedor otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduit. sans son permission. autorisation. Canada ABSTRACT THE PHENOMENON AND POETRY OF THE NEW YORK GROUP: DISCOCTRSES, DISGUISES, AND Lih4INALITY Maria G. Rewakowicz Doctor of PMosophy 200 1 Graduate Department of Slavic Languages and Literanires The New York Group is a circle of Ukrainian avant-garde émigré poets, most of whom began to wcite and publish in the second halfof the 1950s in New York City. The purpose of this study is to examine those creative, philosophical and socio-political aspects that justify the existence of the goup as a singie literary phenomenon in the history of Ukrainian literature. I approach the group's output and activity by focusing on its discursive practices, thematic preferences, and liminal predicarnents. In Part One, 1 introduce the individual poets and situate them against the background of Ukrainian and Western modernisms in order to elucidate the New York Group7sgenerai aesthetic orientations. In Part Two, 1 outüne the group's emergence and formation, paying particular attention to the Literary discourses underlying the poets' interaction with their predecessors, contemporaries and succesors. In Part Three, 1 present a thematic anaiysis of the poetry of the New York Group, concentrating mainly on the poets' predilection for the erotic, the Spanish, and the ludic. My aim in this part is to point out the multiplicity of signification inherent in these ttiree selected themes. Finaiiy, in Part Four, 1 discuss the group's creative, assembling, and aolic tcajectories and argue that the poetic shift from modemist to postrnodernist way of representatioo as well as the poets' exiiïc condition can best be conceptualized from the angle of the concept of liminality. 1 employ the theoretical consûucts of Michel Foucault, Georges Batde, Amold van Gennep and Victor Turner to provide a Gramework for my analyses of Iiterary politics and the texts themselves. in the conciusion 1 argue that the poets of the New York Group, despite their Sinal émigré status, were able to transcend their periphery by pushing the aesthetic boundaries of Ukrainian literature. The group's overall contn'bution has been substantial and it cannot be ornitted in any serious discussion of twentieth-century Ulirainim poetry. First and foremost 1 would like to thank my supervisor, Professor ma^ Tarnawsky, for his ïnsightfid comments and suggestions at the various stages of my thesis. 1 aiso grateftlly acknowledge the kind and dependable assistance of Tanya Chebotarev, Curator of the Bakhrneteff Archive at Columbia University in New York City, and Sofia Sliusar, Curator at the Central State Museum-Archive of Literature and Art in Kyiv, Ukraine. i would like to thank tiiends and colleagues who helped me especially in the busy final stages of the thesis. 1 am indebted to Mark Andryczyk for carefully reading and commenting on my dissertation, and to Daria Luciw for technicai assistance in preparing the final copy. This thesis could not have been completed without the iove and support of my family. Above dl, 1 would like to thank my mother, Anastazja Rewakowicz, for her guidance and encouragement. I also wisn to express my gratitude to my sister Ana Rewakowicz and to my brother Roman Rewakowicz. They both patiently read and comrnented on many cirafts of the thesis. 1 am especially indebted to Bohdan Boychuk for his incredible generosity and unwave~gsupport over the years. Without his fnendship, wisdom, and inspiration this thesis might still be far fiom finished. 1dedicate this work to the memory of Professor Danylo Husar Struk. NOTE ON TRGNSLJTERATION For the most part L have used-the Libraq ofCongress system in uansliterating Ukrainian texts. 1 have made a few exceptions. The proper names of the poets of the New York Group are given in the fonn they themselves adopted in their respective countries of residence - thus Boychuk instead of Boichuk, Andijewska instead of Andiievs'ka. Moreover, the soft sign (6) is omitted in proper names; also the adjectival ending -s'kyi in ükrainian sumames is rendered by -siq; therefore Kostetsky instead of Kostets'kyi. However, 1 fiilly preserve the Library of Congress system of transliteration (without my modification) in the footnotes, Worlis Cited and Consulted, and whenever I make use of parenthetical references in the text. CONTENTS Abstract Acknowledgements Note on Transliteration Introduction Part One THE PHENOMENON AND POETRY OF THE NEW YORK GROW 1. Historical Background, Poetic Portraits, Basic Principles Part Two DISCOURSES: POETRY AS POWER,OR AFFIRMMG THE PRESENCE 2. the Prague School and "Whither Goest Thou?" 3. ShistdesiumyQ, or Who Furloined Our Audience? 4. The Kyiv School, or Where Does the Unison Corne From? Part Three DISGUISES: THEMATICS, OR UNMASKING THE WORD 5. Transforming Desire: The Double Face of Eroticism 6. From Spain with Love, or 1s There a "Spanish School" in Ukraînian Literature? 7. (Post)Modemist Masks: The Aesthetics of the Play-Element Part Four LiMINALITY: TRANSITIONS, OR MAPPING THE GAP 245 8. From Surrealism to Postmodemism: Preliminal, Lunimi, and Postliminal Poetic Realities 246 9. Periphery vs. Centre: The Poetics of Ede 290 Conclusion 311 Works Cited and Consulted 3 16 Introduction The prevalence of varying accounts of what and who reaily stands behind the label 'New York Group' stems in large part from the fact that over the years the statements given out by the individuai members of the group have not aiways been consistent.' By general consensus, however, the so-called New York Group refers to a circle of Ukrainian avant-garde émigré poets, namely Bohdan Boychuk, Yuriy Tamawsky, Patricia Kylyaa, Zhenia Vasylkivska, Emma Andijewska, Bohdan Rubchak, and Vira Vovk, most of whom began to write and pubiish in New York City in the mid-1950s. The group has never corne up with any manifestoes and has aiways insisted that the bais of its existence is personal fiendship and a belief in the fieedom of artistic expression. Moreover, despite its name, it also embraced poets living outside the New York area as long as they propounded (more in praxis than in theory) an innovative approach to Ukrainian poetry and shared the sarne avant-gardist spirit. tt may well be that such broad criteria used for determinhg who is 'in' and who is not greatly contributed to the longevity of the group. +4s the 1996 special commemorative issue of Svito-wd [World View] attests; the New York Group managed to rekindIe and 1 See especially F~er,'%terv7iu" 13-32; Rubchak, Womes as SheUs" 115; Boichuk, "Dekil'ka dumol?' 20; 'Uozmova" 215. Boychuk in 'Dekil'ka dwnok," for example* makes a case (though not a strong one) for the existence of the group also as a broad generationd movement of the 1950s that would would include not only poets but artists as weU (Bohdan Pevny, Lubko Hutsaiîuk, ArkaOIenska-Petryshyn, Jurij Solovij, to name just a few) (20). 2 Svito-vyd (1990-1999), a quarterly of herature and the arts that began as a joint venture between the New York Group and the Writers' Union of Ukraine in 1990, was the first perpetuate its youthfiil exuberance weU into the 1990s. Yuriy Tamawskq, a guest editor of this special issue, reiterated in his introductory remarks thai the New York Group is not a school, but a circle of %ends who are united by a common desire to express themselves free[y in their native tongue (5). He ais0 nostalgically pointed out that like forty years ago, the 'rejuvenated' group happened to consist of seven members, although, understandabty, there is no exact overlap as far as the names are ~oncerned.~Thus the paradip proposed here by Tarnawsky, and earlier by Boychuk ('%onnova" 2 19, entails that the original contingent of seven poets expanded in the 1960s and 1980s to include the younger generation, namely George ~olomyiets,' Oleh Koverko, Marco Carynnyk, Roman Baboval, and Maria Rewakowicz. While this 'fiiendship' criterion in dethhg the New York Group as a group ofiwelve rathw than of seven has iü merits and validity,' in this thesis, the poetry of these 'feilow travelers' wiiI not be examined. The main reason for literary forum that brought together wnters and poets Iiving in the diaspora and Ukraine. While the active involvement of some influentid shistdesiatnyky (for example, Ivan Drach) was essential for the journal's initial suMvd under the Soviet, somewhat relaxe& but sta communist regime, later on, with Ukraine gaining its independence in 199 1, Svito-vyd quickly aiigned itseif with the postshisrdesiaotyky generation, Le., nameIy with the poets of the so-cdled Kyiv School (a core of which consists of Vasyl Holoborodko, Mykhailo Hryhoriv, Vior Kordun, and Mykola Vorobiov).