Friday, 28 July 2023

Literatura Week 6

A seminar with lecturer Uilleam Blacker. Exploing Ukrainian Literature in Dialogue. Two authors, both born in 1850s Ukraine, both died in 1916. Exploring nation, empire and modernity.

Text one: Pure Race by Ivan Franko. This story uses action on a train as a symbol of modernity. As in films, this becomes a setting for chance encounters with a group of otherwise unconnected characters. Varied in outlook and class. This translation by Oles Kovalenko is from 1977.

Two short stories ‘Chava’ and ‘Get thee gone’ from Scholem Aleichem. Part of an eight story cycle, Tevy the Dairyman. There were similarities in this writing with Laurence Sterne’s characters in Tristram Shandy. Unreliable narrator, a stream of consciousness style and dialogue between author and character.


Short Stories, by Ivan Franko.
Dnipro Publishers, 1977.