aaus-list @ ukrainianstudies.org -- [aaus-list] Fwd: To My Beloved AmeriKan UnKle

[Roman Senkus <r.senkus@utoronto.ca>]

Mykola asked me to forward this to aaus-list@ukrainianstudies.org.

regards,
Roman


----- Forwarded message from riabchuk@email.com -----
     Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2007 04:39:02 -0500
     From: Mykola Riabchuk <riabchuk@email.com>
Reply-To: Mykola Riabchuk <riabchuk@email.com>
  Subject: To My Beloved AmeriKan UnKle
       To: kalush@uic.edu

Dear Bohdane,
	Thank you very much for your apt and erudite comment on my trifling  
piece in a tabloid newspaper. Neither I am an intellectual giant of Mr  
Syzonenko caliber nor GPU (nomen omen) is as powerful and influential  
intellectual forum as LitUkraina. This makes your response to my  
humble writing even more valuable. Not every day, indeed, Western  
pundits deign to enlighten us, Ukrainian aborigens, about poetical  
signifiers and tribal micronarratives, and to exorcize postleninist  
spirit and Russian wit (whatever it means) from our poor bodies and  
souls.
	I hope you aren't going to stop on this and, in your next  
Kulturtraeger message, would disclose us who are Messrs. Bush, and  
Washington, and the courageous Ukrainian guy who dared to speak well  
of them.
	I don't think Catherine succeeded in her attempts to intruduce  
historical time into our tribal cyclical temporalities. Nor even the  
two pals who finally unified all our lands and facilitated ultimately  
our trips to AmeriKa (and, you're defintely right, our access to  
American fellowships and professorships), had fully succeeded. But you  
may complete the project - just keep on writing and, I believe, it  
would certainly eventuate in a fine book that illumes not only  
aborigens in your old country but also your really sophisticated  
colleagues in America, Canada and, perhaps, even Venezuela.
	With very best wishes,
Mykola

> > Date:   Thu, 19 Jul 2007 12:09:54 -0500 (CDT)
> > Subject: Re: [aaus-list] Poltava 2009
> > From:   "Rubchak, Bohdan" <kalush@uic.edu>
> > To:     aaus-list@ukrainianstudies.org

> > It seems to me that Mykola Riabchuk's piece was conceived not so much to
> > tell his readers that Catherine's monuments are out of place in Ukraine
> > (which is surely obvious even to them), but that Christopher Columbus's
> > monuments are out of place in the Americas, which they now would love to
> > hear.

> > The comparison between the two historical figures and situations strikes
> > me as bizarre. Having oversimplified the recent criticisms by the
> > postleninist left of the erection of new monuments to Christopher Columbus
> > as a symbol (or even poetical signifier) of the oppression of the Indians,
> > and hence the replacement of tribal micronarratives by national
> > hypernarratives (let us remember that not only the United Stages but also
> > Venezuela is involved), Mr. Riabchuk overlooks the fact that Columbus is a
> > metaphor of the intervention of historical or linear time into tribal
> > cyclical temporalities, with the happy result not only of Chavez and not
> > so much of George Bush, but also of George Washington (of whom at least
> > one Ukrainian spoke rather well), the American Constitution, the
> > Ukrainian-Canadian pioneers, the awareness of the oppression of Native
> > Americans in every American grammar school, and, finally, Fulbright
> > fellowships. If Columbus did not exist, someone would have had to invent
> > him.
> >
> > I really hope that a Russian wit does not take Mr. Riabchuk's unfortunate
> > comparison a tiny step further and say that even as Columbus introduced
> > historical time in the Americas, Catherine inroduced it in Ukraine, and by
> > oppressing the carefree, tribal, singing and dancing Cossacks, made
> > possible the birth of Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, and last but by no
> > means least, Mykola Riabchuk.
> >
> >
> >
> > On Wed, July 18, 2007 7:42 pm, Natalia Pylypiuk wrote:
> > > The following article by Mykola Riabchuk implicitly addresses the
> > > essence of such celebrations:
> > >
> > > *Shanuvaty kolumbiv i kayeryn krashche v barseloni ta Peterburzi*
> > > http://www.gpu-ua.info/index.php?&id=171812
>