UCRAINA POLYTROPA: LA LETTERATURA DEL PERIODO 1917-1934 ALLA RICERCA DI UN ORIENTAMENTO TRA SPINTE ANTICOLONIALI E TENDENZE POSTCOLONIALI
type: CreativeWork
description: This dissertation is focused on a study of the prose works by Maik Iohansen, Mykola Khvyl’ovyi, and Ostap Vyshnia, which were written mainly between 1922 and 1931. Through this study, I aim to propose a new theoretical framework for 1920s Ukrainian literature in general, which can shed light on some traits that have been previously overlooked. Indeed, the numerous studies focusing on 1920s literature have contributed to reinforcing a “martyrological” and nationalizing narrative that led to the literary production of this period being interpreted exclusively through the prism of the “Executed Renaissance paradigm” (Hryn 2004), thus ignoring the complex interweaving of cultures, languages, and ideological positions underlying it. Instead, I argue that a postcolonial approach (combined with a Bakhtinian reading of the texts) may help reassess the relevance of multicultural practices in the nation-building process of 1920s Ukraine, as it is reflected in literature. By defining the three authors’ work as a manifestation of a unitary aesthetic, cultural, and political conception that I call polytropy, I intend to highlight the interplay between political and aesthetic views, which is reflected, in turn, by an equipoise between an anticolonial and a postcolonial stance. Therefore, this dissertation analyzes the three writers’ different manifestations of polytropy in prose fiction. Namely, I consider these four thematic macro-areas: 1) intertextuality, 2) the travel topos, 3) plurilingualism, and 4) the dialogic structuring of the narrative. In my analysis, I show that the writers represent the Ukrainian cultural space as the intersection point of two “semiotic spaces” (Lotman 1990): 1) the Soviet one, with which Ukrainian culture shares the ‘subalternity complex’ towards Western Europe, perceived as the center of cultural colonialism whose influence extends to the whole of Eastern Europe (Wolff 1994; Morozov 2015); 2) Europe itself, of which Ukraine feels part, albeit marg…
abstract: This dissertation is focused on a study of the prose works by Maik Iohansen, Mykola Khvyl’ovyi, and Ostap Vyshnia, which were written mainly between 1922 and 1931. Through this study, I aim to propose a new theoretical framework for 1920s Ukrainian literature in general, which can shed light on some traits that have been previously overlooked. Indeed, the numerous studies focusing on 1920s literature have contributed to reinforcing a “martyrological” and nationalizing narrative that led to the literary production of this period being interpreted exclusively through the prism of the “Executed Renaissance paradigm” (Hryn 2004), thus ignoring the complex interweaving of cultures, languages, and ideological positions underlying it. Instead, I argue that a postcolonial approach (combined with a Bakhtinian reading of the texts) may help reassess the relevance of multicultural practices in the nation-building process of 1920s Ukraine, as it is reflected in literature. By defining the three authors’ work as a manifestation of a unitary aesthetic, cultural, and political conception that I call polytropy, I intend to highlight the interplay between political and aesthetic views, which is reflected, in turn, by an equipoise between an anticolonial and a postcolonial stance. Therefore, this dissertation analyzes the three writers’ different manifestations of polytropy in prose fiction. Namely, I consider these four thematic macro-areas: 1) intertextuality, 2) the travel topos, 3) plurilingualism, and 4) the dialogic structuring of the narrative. In my analysis, I show that the writers represent the Ukrainian cultural space as the intersection point of two “semiotic spaces” (Lotman 1990): 1) the Soviet one, with which Ukrainian culture shares the ‘subalternity complex’ towards Western Europe, perceived as the center of cultural colonialism whose influence extends to the whole of Eastern Europe (Wolff 1994; Morozov 2015); 2) Europe itself, of which Ukraine feels part, albeit marg…
author: CARIA, ROSSELLA
language: ita
keywords: Letteratura ucraina, modernismo, polytropia, studi postcoloniali, identità nazionale, Settore L-LIN/21 - Slavistica
date published: 2024-06-25
date modified: 2026-07-27T20:18:58Z
provider: Università degli Studi di Milano
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Università degli Studi di Milano

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property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/1065612