Larissa Zaleska Onyshkevych
Larissa Maria Lubov Zaleska Onyshkevych is a scholar of modern Ukrainian drama and literature. Most of her publications are on modern and postmodern Ukrainian drama, that she discusses in a comparative literature approach. Ukrainian poetry and prose, as well as issues of the Ukrainian language are also topics of her interest.
Personal
Larissa Zaleska was born in Stryi, Ukraine. Her mother was a teacher and painter, and father was an educator, teaching Ukrainian and Latin in gymnasia and teachers colleges; he was a director of The Sambir Teachers College, and The Stryi Teachers College. In 1918 he was elected congressman of the Western Ukrainian National Republic.Education and professional life
She graduated from Humberside Collegiate Institute in Toronto, and the Royal Canadian Conservatory of Music in Toronto; studied Chemistry at Ryerson Polytechnic Institute, and then Slavic Studies at the University of Toronto. At the U. of Pennsylvania, she received an MA in Ukrainian language, and then a Ph.D. in Ukrainian literature. She taught at Rutgers Univ. in New Brunswick, N.J., and later worked as an editor. She served as President of Princeton Research Forum and then President of the Shevchenko Scientific SocietyShe received many awards and grants (NDEA IV, IREX, ACLS, and a Fulbright Senior Scholar grant to teach in Ukraine. In 2001, she was granted an Honorary Doctorate by the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv; in 2015 she was awarded the Ivan Franko Medal by this University. Her book on Ukrainian Drama - Tekst I Hra- was the winner of the L. and P. Kovaliv Prize, in 2010.
Professional Publications
Larissa Zaleska Onyshkevych is an author, compiler, and/or editor of 16 books in English and/or Ukrainian; author of chapters in books; editor of special issues/editions and periodicals; and author of close to 200 articles on comparative, Slavic, Ukrainian, and American drama, literature, language, and theater. She is also a translator of Ukrainian poetry into English, and literary theory into Ukrainian.As a Ukrainian drama specialist, she has edited/compiled 6 books on the subject. Her anthologies of modern Ukrainian drama were the first such compilations in Ukrainian literature, and include: an English-language anthology of Ukrainian drama, a set of parallel volumes of plays in the two languages, as well as the first study and anthology of Ukrainian drama written by playwrights of the Ukrainian Diaspora in the West. A major selection of her studies of Ukrainian drama is collected in her volume Tekst I Hra , 2009. In this conpendium, her studies are grouped as Texts and Interpretations. Under “Texts” she discusses modernism, postmodernism, existentialism, issues of identity, and themes of historical upheavals as they are reflected in specific plays. In Section II, fourteen Ukrainian playwrights and their plays are discussed in comparative aspects to other Western dramatic works. Section III deals with the presentation of various Ukrainians plays in Ukrainian and American theaters, while concentrating on the interpretations chosen by specific directors. Other sections deal with non-Ukrainian plays on Ukrainian themes, and publications on the Ukrainian theater and actors.
Books on drama
- Existentialism in Modern Ukrainian Drama..
- Blyzniata Shche Zustrinut’sia .
- Antolohiia Modernoї Ukraїns’koi Dramy .
- Holodomor: Dvi Dramy , .
- Tekst i Hra. Ukraїns’ka Moderna Drama ,.
- An Anthology of Modern Ukrainian Drama.,.
Memoirs
- Borders, Bombs, and …Two Right Shoes. World War II through the Eyes of a Ukrainian Child Refugee Survivor. Charleston, SC, 2016.
- Bomby, Hranytsi i Dva Pravi Cherevychky. Druha Svitova Viina Ochyma Dytyny-Bizhentsia. . Memoir translated by the author. Lviv:Litopys, 2018.
Editor/Co-Author of books on other topics and genres
- Kontrasty. . Editor et al. v. 1. New York: Shevchenko Scientific Society & Suchasnist', 1991.
- “Ukrainian Poetry” section, Ed. and Intro. in Shifting Borders: East European Poetries of the Eighties. Ed. Walter Cummins. Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson U. Press, 1993.
- Borys Antonenko-Davydovych: Lytsar Neabsurdnykh Idei. . Ed. and Intro. Kyiv: Chas, 1994.
- Pro ukraїns'kyi pravopys i problemy movy . Editor et al., 1997.
- Svity Shevchenka . Ed. et al. v.2. New York: Shevchenko Scientific Society, v. 2. NY: Shevchenko Sci. Soc., 2001.
- Volodymyr Vynnychenko: U poshukakh estetychnoï, osobystoï ta suspilnoï harmoniï . Ed. in chief et al. NY: UVAN, 2005.
- Contemporary Ukraine on The Cultural Map of Europe. Co-Editor and Co-Author. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 2009..
Chapters in/co-author of/ books
- "Filaret Kolessa's Reissued Works on Folklore." The Jubilee Collection of the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences. Winnipeg: UVAN, 1976.
- “Ukrainian Theater" in Ethnic Theater in America. Maxine Schwartz Seller, Ed. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1983.
- Antolohiia svitovoï literaturno-krytychnoï dumky XX st. ; also co-editor and co-translator of articles by Northrop Frye and Richard Rorty; author of article on existentialism. Maria Zubrytska, Ed. in Chief, Larissa Onyshkevych and John Fizer, Assoc. editors. Lviv: Litopys, 1996, 2003.
- "The Problem of the Definitive Literary Text and Political Censorship." Perspectives on Modern Central and East European Literature: Quests for Identity. Ed. Todd Patrick Armstrong. Houndmills, G. Britain & New York, NY: Palgrave, 2001, 25-37.
- "Characters Revealing Issues of Identity: In Terms of History, Nation, Religion, and Gender in Post-Soviet Ukrainian Drama." Society in Transition: Social Change in Ukraine in Western Perspectives. Ed. Wsevolod W. Isajiw. Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press, 2003, 327-345.
- “Prava movy” , Oberezhno - Mova! . 2003, 38-39.
- "A Soviet Discourse on the Faustian Metaphor in Two Ukrainian Plays: by Oleksandr Levada and Yurii Shcherbak", in Twentieth Century Ukrainian Literature. Essays in Honor of Dmytro Shtohryn. Ed. by Jaroslav Rozumnyj, Kyiv: Mohyla Academy Publishing, 2011, 162-174.
Introductory Essays to Books of Poetry, Drama, Language Studies
- "Ukrainian Family Names" , Dictionary of Ukrainian Surnames in Canada. Ed. F. Bogdan. Vancouver: Onomastic Society, 1974.
- “Muzyka Bat’kivshchyny Mene Bolyt’” . Intro. to Ihor Kalynets', Vohon Kupala . Baltimore, 1975.
- Pershyi Vinok . Eds. Natalia Kobryns'ka and Olena Pchilka.. Editor and intro. to 2nd edition. New York: Ukrainian Women's League, 1984.
- “Vid Vertepu do Krylatoї Skrypky. Dramatychni tvory Wiry Wowk. Wira Wowk: Teatr. Kyiv: Rodovid, 2002, 5-19.
- Pro anima i animus, and Pro Esteru, prytchi i alehoriї Wiry Wowk. Intro. to : Wira Wowk, Dyptykh, Lviv: BaK, 2013, 3-6, and 61-62 resp.
- "Na Hrani dvokh riznykh svitiv" and "Heroi pid tyskom chasu i znannia maibutnioho', Intro. to Tadei Karabovych , Dvi dramatychni poemy. Ostriv i Taina Vecheria. Lublin:Episteme, 2013. 7-11, 39-42.
- "Vichnist' nache khmarynka z doshchem", Introduction to Tadeucz Karabowicz, Vichnist' nache khmarynka z doshchem. Lublin: Episteme, 2015, 5-10.
Translations
- Birds from An Invisible Island .
- “Aqua Vitae/End of the Century”. MS.
- Serhii Paradzhanov, 210-211.
- Wira Wowk "Mandala"
- Vasyl Stus "A Hundred Mirrors Glare at Me..."
- Sofia Maidanska "You'll always be able to find me..." and "Only once...".