Where Currents Meet : Frontiers in Post-Soviet Fiction of Kharkiv, Ukraine

228 Pages·2016·6.486 MB·English

by  Tanya Zaharchenko

This content downloaded from 128.119.168.112 on Sun, 31 Jul 2016 20:04:06 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
w
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ukraine’s eastern city of Kharkiv is a historical home of modern Ukrainian culture, but its vibrant bilingual literature Where Currents Meet, Tanya Zaharchenko’s path-breaking study
Tanya Zaharchenko (MSc University of Oxford 2007, has been persistently overlooked as a subject of study, often in Ukraine itself. In this refreshingly creative and w of literature and cultural memory, moves decisively beyond the
incredibly timely book, which combines insights from both memory studies and border studies, Tanya Zaharchenko simplistic view of a post-Soviet Ukraine divided between east
PhD University of Cambridge 2014) was the 2015 Einstein
decisively moves “shimmering” Kharkiv from the margins to its rightful place at the center of our attention. and west. It positions the Ukrainian and Russian components of
Fellow in Germany, and is currently a Research Fellow in
A required read for anyone seeking to understand the remarkable cultural and linguistic diversity of today’s Ukraine. cultural experience in the country’s east as elements of a complex
Ukrainian Studies at the University of Oslo.
Rory Finnin, Director of Cambridge Ukrainian Studies Programme and Head of Department of Slavonic Studies, m continuum. Combining insights from memory studies and border
http://memoryidentity.wordpress.com
University of Cambridge studies, Zaharchenko analyzes a generation of younger writers in
the city of Kharkiv—a “doubletake generation” that came of age
The signifi cance of Zaharchenko’s book derives from its novelty, the sophisticated and accomplished nature of at the time of the Soviet Union’s collapse and now revisits this
its argumentation, and its graceful style. As a detailed, theoretically justifi ed study of a literary locality, Where experience through fi ction. In the works of Serhiy Zhadan, Andreĭ
Currents Meet breaks new ground. Most importantly, it is an exceptionally timely book: it models a way of writing FROOOOONNNNNNTTTTTTIIIIIERS IN POOOSSSTTT-SOOOVVVVVIIET Krasniashchikh, Yuri Tsaplin, Oleh Kotsarev, and others the author
about the Ukrainian and Russian components of cultural experience in Ukraine’s East that sees them as elements reveals how borderlands and frontiers, both geographical and
FICTTTIIOOON OF KHARRKKKIIIVVV,
of a continuum, not as antagonistic parts of cultural entities whose centers are elsewhere. conceptual, acquire zonal qualities of their own as these writers
m
UKRAINE navigate the historical legacy they have inherited.
Marko Pavlyshyn, Professor of Ukrainian Studies and Director of the Monash European and EU Centre,
Monash University, Melbourne
A rare example of brilliantly written literary research about Serhiy Zhadan and the post-Soviet fi ction of Kharkiv,
going far beyond close reading and towards a deeper understanding of the cultural and historical convulsions of
contemporary Ukraine. A landmark publication for our understanding of boundaries and frontiers, memory and
identity as recurrent topics in the major works of young East European writers.
FF
IR
C
Katharina Raabe, Chief Editor for East Europe, Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin TO
IN
O
T
NI
Eastern Ukraine more often than not has been a place about which people speak on the basis of fi rmly held beliefs OER
FS
rather than knowledge and experience. As a consequence, voices from Eastern Ukraine become lost in a cacophony K I
HN
of politically driven polemics. Tanya Zaharchenko offers an invaluable corrective to what is assumed to be collective A P
RO
wisdom. By telling the story of a remarkably bright literary explosion in Kharkiv, she demonstrates the complexity KS
IT
of identity in a place where currents meet, and have done so for decades. This is an important book. V, U-SO
Blair A. Ruble, Vice President, Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington DC KV
RIE
AT
I
N
E
T
A
N
Y
A
Z
A
Central European University Press H
A
Budapest – New York R
Sales and information: CH
[email protected] E
N
Website: http://www.ceupress.com K
O
ISBN 978-963-386-119-6 TTAANNYYA ZAHARCHENKO
cover photograph: Patrick Breslin
cover design: Tímea E. Adrián
ZZaahhaarrcchheennkkoo__pprriinntt..iinndddd 11 22//2244//1166 11::4499 PPMM
WHERE CURRENTS MEET
This content downloaded from 128.119.168.112 on Sun, 31 Jul 2016 20:04:06 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
i6 Zaharchenko 00 book.indb 1 2016. 02. 17. 09:57
This content downloaded from 128.119.168.112 on Sun, 31 Jul 2016 20:04:06 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
i6 Zaharchenko 00 book.indb 2 2016. 02. 17. 09:57
WHER E
CURR ENTS
MEET
Frontiers in Post-Soviet Fiction
of Kharkiv, Ukraine
T Z
anya aharchenko
Central European University Press
Budapest–New York
This content downloaded from 128.119.168.112 on Sun, 31 Jul 2016 20:04:06 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
i6 Zaharchenko 00 book.indb 3 2016. 02. 17. 09:57
Copyright © by Tanya Zaharchenko 2016
Published in 2016 by
Central European University Press
An imprint of the
Central European University Limited Liability Company
Nádor utca 11, H-1051 Budapest, Hungary
Tel: [phone] or 327-3000
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.ceupress.com
224 West 57th Street, New York NY 10019, USA
Tel: [phone]
E-mail: [email protected]
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, without the permission
of the Publisher.
ISBN 978-963-386-119-6 Cloth
Library of congress caTaLoging-in-PubLicaTion DaTa
Names: Zaharchenko, Tanya.
Title: Where currents meet : frontiers in post-Soviet fiction of Kharkiv, Ukraine /
Tanya Zaharchenko.
Description: Budapest ; New York : Central European University Press, 2016. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015038952 | ISBN 9789633861196 (hardbound : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Russian fiction—Ukraine—History and criticism. | Authors, Rus-
sian—Ukraine. | Collective memory in literature. | Memory in literature.
Classification: LCC PG3501.U4 Z34 2015 | DDC 891.709/0044—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015038952
Printed in Hungary by
Prime Rate Kft.
This content downloaded from 128.119.168.112 on Sun, 31 Jul 2016 20:04:06 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
i6 Zaharchenko 00 book.indb 4 2016. 02. 17. 09:57
To Tatiana and Patrick
This content downloaded from 128.119.168.112 on Sun, 31 Jul 2016 20:04:06 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
i6 Zaharchenko 00 book.indb 5 2016. 02. 17. 09:57
This content downloaded from 128.119.168.112 on Sun, 31 Jul 2016 20:04:06 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
i6 Zaharchenko 00 book.indb 6 2016. 02. 17. 09:57
Literature is like memory: the farther you move away [from Kharkiv],
the more distorted it becomes. One day someone should really try to
collect these texts, assemble them into some sort of order, and con-
struct one comprehensive text out of them—a unified set of symbols,
whose random combination generated this new literature. These
authors wouldn’t gather as a group anywhere else, because literature
has long ceased to be held together by performances, journals, or alma-
nacs. The only thing that can connect writers today is, say, architec-
ture, façades of old buildings, words written on walls, . . . broken glass
under their feet and old names of city streets . . . all this litter. Litera-
ture emerges when you internalize it all.
—Serhiy Zhadan (2012)
This content downloaded from 128.119.168.112 on Sun, 31 Jul 2016 20:04:06 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
i6 Zaharchenko 00 book.indb 7 2016. 02. 17. 09:57
This content downloaded from 128.119.168.112 on Sun, 31 Jul 2016 20:04:06 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
i6 Zaharchenko 00 book.indb 8 2016. 02. 17. 09:57
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Notes on format xi
..........................................
Foreword xiii
....................................................
Introduction
DOUBLETAKE GENERATION AND THE
SHIMMER OF FRONTIERS 1
........................
Time and space 3
............................................
Memory and literature 9
...................................
The shimmer of frontiers 16
................................
Where currents meet 25
.....................................
Chapter One
FRONTIERS OF IDENTITY 39
........................
Fluid identities 41
.............................................
Narratives at war 54
..........................................
Sloboda: Roots of fluidity 65
...............................
Chapter Two
FRONTIERS OF EMPTINESS 79
.....................
The last barricade 81
.........................................
A story in old drawings 86
..................................
Of monsters and men 90
....................................
This content downloaded from 128.119.168.112 on Sun, 31 Jul 2016 20:39:28 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
i6 Zaharchenko 00 book.indb 9 2016. 02. 17. 09:57