The Post-Chornobyl Library
Ukrainian Postmodernism of the 1990s
Tamara Hundorova author Sergiy Yakovenko author Sergiy Yakovenko translator
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Academic Studies Press
Published:30th Nov '19
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Having exploded on the margins of Europe, Chornobyl marked the end of the Soviet Union and tied the era of postmodernism in Western Europe with nuclear consciousness. The Post-Chornobyl Library in Tamara Hundorova's book becomes a metaphor of a new Ukrainian literature of the 1990s, which emerges out of the Chornobyl nuclear trauma of the 26th of April, 1986. Ukrainian postmodernism turns into a writing of trauma and reflects the collisions of the post-Soviet time as well as the processes of decolonization of the national culture. A carnivalization of the apocalypse is the main paradigm of the post-Chornobyl text, which appeals to "homelessness" and the repetition of "the end of histories." Ironic language game, polymorphism of characters, taboo breaking, and filling in the gaps of national culture testify to the fact that the Ukrainians were liberating themselves from the totalitarian past and entering the society of the spectacle. Along this way, the post-Chornobyl character turns into an ironist, meets with the Other, experiences a split of his or her self, and witnesses a shift of geo-cultural landscapes.
“[A]n exciting addition to the growing field of anglophone studies of Ukrainian literature. Hundorova masterfully traces the etiologies and manifestations of postmodern literary and cultural structures in Ukraine, placing the explosion of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant as the genesis of the postmodern cultural and literary movement in Ukraine. … Ultimately, Hundorova's The Post-Chornobyl Library is an important contribution not only to the field of Ukrainian literary criticism but also to the expansive library of studies of postmodernism. This work will certainly prove useful to people in either field of study, and its new translation into English allows anglophone critics access to Hundorova's comprehensive, insightful, and theoretically sophisticated arguments on Ukrainian literature, postmodernism, and their interaction.”
—Brett Donohoe, Harvard University, H-Ukraine
“Its depth of analysis and breadth of engagement with theorists and practitioners of postmodernism worldwide make this book essential reading for anyone studying the tectonic literary and cultural shifts that took place in Eastern Europe with the collapse of the Soviet state. … Always insightful and often provocative, the essays of The Post-Chornobyl Library represent, in this reviewer’s estimation, literary and cultural criticism at its best. Now available to the Anglophone audiences in a highly readable translation by Sergiy Yakovenko, they will be of great value to students and scholars of Ukrainian literature and culture, of postmodernism, and of Eastern Europe as a region.”
—Oleksandra Wallo, University of Kansas, Russian Review
“In her writing, Hundorova demonstrates that she is extremely well read in literary criticism in general and on postmodernism in particular, citing numerous significant thinkers…The book in general will be useful both to literary theoreticians and thinkers as well as to students and a general literary audience interested in pre- and post- independence developments in Ukrainian literature.”
— Aleksandra Konarzewska, Slavic Review
ISBN: 9781644692387
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
338 pages