Seminar 2 was with lecturer Tamara Hundorova author of The Post-Chornobyl Library. This seminar was Ukrainian Modernism and Feminism. This focused on two writers, Lesia Ukrainka and Olha Kobylianska. A discussion of two texts in relation to modernist themes. This included relationships to Kafka, T. S. Eliot and Deleuze.
My first reading was a text by Lesia Ukrainka, Cassandra. This is a dramatic poem, a 1968 edition translated by Vera Rich. In particular I focused on a discussion on truth (p. 217).
“Does a voice never tell you in your heart:
“It shall be this, thus and no other way?”
(Ukrainka, 1968, p. 217).
Investigating intuition, truth, dialogue and physical relationships.
Extract from Cassandra by Lesia Ukrainka. Source: The Electronic Library of Ukrainian Literature.
Text two was an extract from a short story. Valse Mélancolique by Olha Kobylianska. This text is from 1897. A story of relationships between three women. This is a first person narration from one woman and her two friends and housemates, one artist, one musician. It is a story of female identity, kinship and love “like a man” (Kobylianska, 1998, p. 151). Perspectives on female identity.
Kobylianska, Olha (1998) 'Valse melancholique', trans.
by Roma Franko, in But...The Lord is Silent (Language Lanterns
Publications,), pp. 128-170.
Ukrainka, Lesia (1968) Cassandra [Online]. trans. by Vera Rich Toronto: University of Toronto. Available from: <http://sites.utoronto.ca/elul/English/Ukrainka/Ukrainka-Cassandra.pdf> [Accessed 30 June 2023].