LFU:online

Students are familiar with the main events of Ukrainian history (from the 18th century to the present) and the competing narratives about space, history and nation in Ukrainian and Russian literature

Using Ukrainian and Russian literary narratives, we take a look at the spatial realities of Ukraine (sung about especially in Romanticism), at specific social phenomena such as the Cossacks, and at central events in Ukrainian history (such as the Battle of Poltava, the Hajdamak Uprising, the Russian-Polish War of 1920, the Cholodomor, the Babiy Yar massacre, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the Donbass region since 2014). We examine which emotions, values, and national visions are associated with literary texts, which myths are constructed and which imperial claims are conveyed, which suffering can ultimately find expression poems and stories.

Among the works discussed are:

Taras Ševčenko "Gajdamaki" ("The Haidamaks"), "Son" ("The Dream"); Nikolai Gogol' "Taras Bulba"; Ivan Franko "Zachar Berkut" ("Storm in the Tuchla Valley"); Isaak Babel' "Konarmija" ("Red Cavalry"); Evgenij Evtušenko "Babij Jar" ("Babi Yar"); Svetlana Aleskievič "Černobyl'skaja molitva" ("Chernobyl"), Serhij Žadan "Internat".

A detailed list of primary literature will be made available in early September.

We will work primarily with translations into German, so that the VU will be of benefit to all students who do not speak Ukrainian and/or Russian.

Input by the course instructor, oral presentations by the students, discussion, short written paper

Active participation and presentations by the students, written assignment