The Ukrainian Literary Scene Today Author(s): George S. N. Luckyj Source: Slavic Review, Vol. 31, No. 4 (Dec., 1972), pp. 863-869 Published by: Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2493768 . Accessed: 16/06/2014 12:33 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Slavic Review. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 62.122.73.250 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 12:33:29 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions REVIEW ARTICLES GEORGE S. N. LUCKYJ The UkrainianLiterary Scene Today The past decade was a timeof intensechange in the intellectualclimate of the Soviet Ukraine.The rootsof the changego back to the TwentiethParty Con- gress and Khrushchev'sde-Stalinization policy. After 1964, when the political course hardenedconsiderably, Ukrainian writersand intellectualswere still carriedon by thewave of discontentreleased by earlierevents. The discontent withStalinism was coupledwith a searchfor new values and ideas, and in the world of art,for new formsand expressions.Despite reimposedcontrols, this searchin the 1960s was successfuland leftits markon contemporaryUkrain- ian literatureand literarycriticism. During the last seven years it has also given birthto a widespreadmovement of dissent. In orderto understandthe currentliterary situation in the Ukraine one mustcast a glanceover the past decade and detectthe natureof the intellectual fermentduring that period. One need not dwell here on those featuresof in- tellectualdiscontent with Stalinismwhich were also apparentin Russia, since theyare generallywell known.Demands formore creative freedom and voices raisedin oppositionto the steriledoctrine of socialistrealism and partycontrol over the arts were heard throughoutthe Soviet Union. In the Ukraine,how- ever, the "thaw" had a distinctiveflavor. National awareness-sternlysup- pressed under Stalin-reasserted itself,and a partial rehabilitationof the Ukrainianliterature of the 1920s intensifiedthe feelingof national identity. Yet-at firstat least-the nationalelement in Ukrainianliterature was rather subdued.Not onlybecause "nationalism"was stilla dangerouslabel forthose to whom it mightbe applied, but also because nationalismis assertedmore subtlytoday than it was halfa centuryago. The mostnotable literary event of the 1960s was the rebirthof Ukrainian poetry.A groupof youngpoets who were called shestydesiatnyky("sixtiers") came into existence.Among themwere Lina Kostenko,Ivan Drach, Vitalii Korotych, Mykola Vinhranovsky,and Vasyl Symonenko.Their greatest achievementwas the rediscoveryof thefunction of poetry.Stripped of socialist realistcliches, the poem was re-establishedas an essentiallylyrical expression of the individualperson. True, philosophicaland social overtonesare occasion- ally present,but the poem is judged firston its artisticand linguisticmerits, not on any ideology,which indeed is absent. Some of the youngpoets (espe- This content downloaded from 62.122.73.250 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 12:33:29 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 864 Slavic Review ciallySymonenko, Vinhranovsky, and Drach) show strongnational sentiments. Their concernwith the Ukraine is combinedwith the themeof nature or of social justice. The popularityof the "sixtiers,"great as it was, was short-lived.From 1962 on theywere attackedas "formalists"and treatedwith suspicionin the press.Symonenko died in 1963,Kostenko was rarelypuLblislhed, and the others in the groupchose "safer"themes. Yet theirimpact on literaturecould not be erased. Aftertheir successful reinvigoration of the poetic language,a return to socialistrealist verbiage proved impossible.They had kindredspirits in Ukrainian prose (Ievhen Hutsalo, Valerii Shevchuk,Volodymyr Drozd), whichwas experiencinga renewal. That the new wave of poetryand prose rose out of a sea of mediocrity and conformismproves the vitalityof Ukrainianliterature. It also raises im- portantproblems in relationto the past and future.Older writers,on the whole,remained aloof fromnthe strivingsof the youngergeneration. Most of themremained loyal to socialistrealism, fearing no doubtthat the "thaw" was only temporary.A notable exceptionwas Maksym Rylsky,who on several occasionsbefore his deathin 1964 openlysupported the youngpoets. Another older poet, Mykola Bazhan, suddenlyreturned to his earlier,pre-Stalinist po- eticmanner in "Opovidanniapro nadiiu: Variatsiina temuR. M. Rilke" ("A Tale About Hope: Variationsoln a Theme by R. M. Rilke," 1966). A post- humous publicationof Pavlo Tychyna's HryhoriiSkovoroda (Kiev, 1971) made available a long poem writtenover a period of two decades (1920-40). Early passages in thiswell-conceived but poorlyexecuted "symphony" are of greatpower. However, the attemptto representthe historicalSkovoroda as an active fighteragainst the establishmentis not veryconvincing, unless one ap- plies it metaphoricallyto a more recentsituation. Another older writer,Iurii Smolych,indulged in a spate of memoirsabout the 1920s: Rozpovid' pro ne- spokii (A Tale About Restlessness,1968), Ro vpovid' pro nespokiitryvaie (A T'ale About RestlessnessContinutes, 1969), and Rozpovidipro nespokiinemaie kintsia (The Tale AbouttRestlessness Has No End, 1972). It is a pitythat thesememoirs are not as informativeas theycould be. Much morevaluable is a studyof the greatestUkrainian playwright, Mykola Kulish, who perishedin the purgesof the 1930s (N. Kuziakina,Piesy M4ykolyKulisha, 1970). It is not only the recentpast which holds a fascinationfor the Soviet reader. There has been a floodof historicalfiction, which was always a rea- sonably safe subject for Ukrainian writers.Some historicalnovelists try a more sophisticatedapproach, which often falls flat.A good example is Pavlo Zahrebelny'sDyvo (A M4arvel,1968), whichcombines two plots,one set in the tenthand eleventhcenturies and the otherduring and afterthe Second This content downloaded from 62.122.73.250 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 12:33:29 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions UkrainianLiterary Scene Today 865 World War. The focusof the book is the cathedralof St. Sophia in Kiev, its erectionin ancientRus', and its defenseby a Soviet art historianduring the Germanoccupation. The work is repletewith false profundity.Is the reader naive enoughto believethat the Sovietscared so muchabout the preservation of St. Sophia? Behinda calculateddrive to show the artisticurge throughthe ages thereis a hollowemptiness. Much less pretentiousare some novels about the Cossack Ukraine. Roman Ivanychuk'sMal'vy (Hollyhocks, 1968) is set in thetime of Khmelnytsky.Stanislav Telniuk's Hraie syniemore (The Danc- ing BliteSea, 1971) is aboutthe Zaporozhians. It reads like a detectivestory. Despitethe gray mass of prose and poetrychurned out by the old socialist realistdream machine, there are today clear tendenciestoward showing more complex,personal points of view and using subtlertechniques. The acceptance of greatersophistication is admittedby literarycritics reviewing the latestpo- etryand prose: MarharytaMalynovska, Liubov do zhyttia (Love of Life, 1968), Vitalii Donchyk,Hrani suchasnoi prozy (Aspects of Contemporary Prose, 1970), AnatoliiDimarov, Rozmaittia tendentsii (Different Tendencies, 1969). Anotherinteresting critical study is H. Syvokin'sKhudozhnia litera- turai chytach(Literature and the Reader, 1971), whichreveals the prepon- deranceof Russian books in Ukrainianlibraries and the relativelylittle interest in contemporaryliterature among readers. While Ievhen Hutsalo remains the best representativeof the "village prose," with his Serpen', spalakh liubovi (Autgust,the Flare-Up of Love, 1970), othershort-story writers concentrate on urban life. Valerii Shevchuk, authorof the novel Naberezhna12 (1968) and the collectionof shortstories Vechirsviatoi oseni (Evening of theSacred Autumn,1969), is themost prom- isingin thisfield. A long storyof his entitled-likeCamus's novel-Mor (The Plague) remainsunpublished. Shevchuk's writing contains a strongantidote to the poetic prose which has always been prevalentin the Ukraine. Another writerin thiscategory is Iurii Shcherbak,a doctorby profession,who gives a good glimpseof the Soviet scientificestablishment in Ifla ncaviini (As During the War, 1966). His latestnovel Barier nesutmisnosti(The Barrier of Incom- patibility,1971) has attractedmuch attention. Simplistic ideology, so common in earlierSoviet literature,is absent.In the words of the criticDonchyk, "The new approachto the depictionof negativephenomena shows itselfin the fact thatwriters are not so preoccupiedwith a balance of good and evil, knowing fullwell thatpositive ideas may also be expressedby negation,by criticism." Indeed,less attentionis paid to ideas and more to personalexperiences. Two otherprose writers with good prospectsfor the futureare Roman Andriashyk, authorof Foltva (1969), and HryhirTiutiunnyk, who wrote the long short storyObloha (Siege, 1970). Andriashyk'snovel, especially,offers new types This content downloaded from 62.122.73.250 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 12:33:29