aaus-list @ ukrainianstudies.org -- [aaus-list] Fwd: UKRAINIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION: TWONEW BOOKS

[Robert DeLossa <radelo@earthlink.net>]

>Status:  U
>Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2005 17:06:58 -0400
>From:	Roman Senkus <r.senkus@utoronto.ca>
>Subject: UKRAINIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION: TWO NEW BOOKS
>To:	unlisted-recipients:; (no To-header on input)
>X-ELNK-AV: 0
>
>UKRAINIAN LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION: TWO NEW BOOKS
>The six-volume series Women’s Voices in Ukrainian Literature was 
>published by Language
>Lanterns Publications between 1998 and 2000. Translated by Roma 
>Franko and edited by Sonia
>Morris, these books introduced the short fiction of eight women 
>writers (1880-1920) to the
>English-reading world.
>Passion’s Bitter Cup and Riddles of the Heart, companion anthologies 
>of short fiction written
>during this period by male authors, continue to fill in “blank 
>spots” in Ukrainian literature in
>translation by making stories with love and erotic themes accessible 
>to readers of English. These
>two books, also translated by Roma Franko and edited by Sonia 
>Morris, were printed in 2004 and
>released in July 2005. They are available from Ukrainian bookstores 
>in Canada, Amazon.com, or
>the publisher for $14.95 each.
>Some of the short fiction in these companion volumes was deemed 
>immoral or amoral, and its
>authors were censured by their more conservative peers. The works 
>considered a threat to the
>social order were banned, and as was true of similar groundbreaking 
>literature in Western Europe,
>did not become generally available to Ukrainian readers until 
>several decades later.
>The social issues that are addressed in these books are disturbing, 
>and the philosophical positions
>espoused by a number of protagonists have not lost their capacity to 
>elicit strong emotional
>reactions, but the stories themselves are literary in conception, 
>and in sharp contrast to writing
>that is sexually explicit, deliberately titillating, or obscene, 
>they are not offensive. The content
>that scandalized the reading public of the day has long since lost 
>its shock value, and today’s
>reader is likely to commend these authors for their exploration of 
>morality and equity in malefemale
>relationships and persistent social issues that some of us still 
>prefer not to address.
>The theme of Passion’s Bitter Cup is the cost of living and loving 
>passionately, be it a matter of
>temperament or conviction. Some of the stories are sentimental and 
>romantic; others are hardhitting
>depictions of rape, abortion, suicide, crimes of passion, 
>prostitution, the plight of “fallen
>women,” and the licentiousness of the upper classes. Several 
>describe women’s initial forays into
>the workplace and the sexual exploitation of working class women by 
>privileged males.
>The stories in Riddles of the Heart have one overarching motif: the 
>age-old puzzle of physical
>attraction, sensuality, and desire, and the unfathomable course of 
>passionate love. Some portray
>the histrionic reactions of adolescents to the vicissitudes of first 
>love; others focus on the
>disastrous consequences, for women, of flouting social mores. Still 
>others, however, depict
>women as Jezebels. Thus, in an extreme case of role reversal, a 
>liberated woman callously takes
>advantage of a man’s infatuation to attain her goal of motherhood 
>unencumbered by marriage.
>These anthologies provide a fascinating glimpse into life as it was 
>lived in urban Ukraine at the
>turn of the twentieth century—a time of social unrest, shifting 
>mores, and heady affirmations of
>freedom of choice. Some of the content is simply human—universal, 
>familiar, and predictable,
>and some of it is bound to a particular time and place, but taken 
>together, the stories illuminate
>the social history of a part of the world that is still reaping the 
>wild wind of its turbulent past.
>Sonia Morris, Business Manager, Language Lanterns Publications
>soniavmorris@shaw.ca Phone: 604-538-9832 Fax: 604-538-4957
>For more information about Language Lanterns, other books, and 
>publication plans, visit:
>www.languagelanterns.com
>
>
>
>ROMAN SENKUS / POMAH CEHbKYCb
>Director, CIUS Publications Program www.utoronto.ca/cius
>Managing Editor, www.encyclopediaofukraine.com
>
>Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Toronto Office
>20 Orde St., Room 125
>University of Toronto
>Toronto, ON
>M5T 1N7
>Canada
>
>tel. 416-978-8669, 416-978-6934
>fax 416-978-2672