A community of others

Description

This study examines prose of the first decade of Ukraine's independence (approximately the 1990s) written by the visimdesiatnyky generation of Ukrainian writers. It focuses exclusively on prose works that feature post-Soviet Ukrainian intellectuals as chief protagonists and locates the construction of these characters' identities as a space where Ukraine's post-Soviet identity is actively explored.The conclusion articulates that the 1990s prose of the visimdesiatnyky constitutes an important period of transition in Ukrainian literature that offers unique perspectives on vital issues concerning the future of Ukraine's identity.This dissertation establishes euphoria, chaos and community as the three movements which define this period of Ukrainian prose writing. These movements co-exist, often within one particular prose work and are indicative of a general dialectic tension that characterizes this period of Ukrainian literature. Chapter One shows the euphoric movement and its postmodern deconstruction of narrative, myths and language to be part of a conscious effort by the visimdesiatnyky in liberating Ukrainian literature from the constrictive cultural frameworks traditionally assigned to it. Chapter Two describes the disillusionment and disorientation of the Ukrainian intellectual in the chaotic movement and singles out the incompatibility of male and female Ukrainian intellectuals in the prose of the visimdesiatnyky as a symptom of the general sense of alienation experienced by the Ukrainian intellectual in post-Soviet Ukraine. Chapter Three looks at the roles played by the morality and otherness associated with the Ukrainian language in defining the identity of the Ukrainian intellectual. This chapter also provides a theoretical approach to maintaining a balance between play and responsibility as well as between freedom and structure---the key issue in this prose---and identifies the weaving of intertextual communities by the visimdesiatnyky as a method through which they attempt to achieve such an equilibrium.This study will also identify three new prototypes of the Ukrainian intellectual---"the swashbuckling performer," "the ambassador to the West" and "the sick individual"---that were introduced in the prose of this period and will demonstrate how the relationship of the intellectual with society and government is reflected in these prototypes.

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