Ukrainian literature


Ukrainian literature is literature written in the Ukrainian language.
Ukrainian literature mostly developed under foreign domination over Ukrainian territories. At times Ukrainian language was partly outlawed in oral and print form from 17th to early 21st century. However, foreign rule by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Poland, the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Romania, the Austria-Hungary Empire, and the Ottoman Empire, enriched Ukrainian culture and language, and Ukrainian authors were able to produce a rich literary heritage.

Ivan Kotlyarevsky
Taras Shevchenko
Ivan Franko
Mykhailo
Kotsiubynsky
Lesya Ukrainka
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Ukrainian literature’s precursor: writings in Old-Church Slavonic and Latin in Ukraine

Prior to the establishment of Ukrainian literature in 1700s, many authors from Ukraine wrote in "scholarly" languages of middle-ages - Latin and Old-Church Slavonic. Among prominent authors from Ukraine who wrote in Latin and Old-Church Slavonic are Hryhorii Skovoroda, Yuriy Drohobych, Sebastian Klenovych, Stanislav Orikhovsky-Roxolan, Feofan Prokopovych,, and others.

The beginnings of oral Ukrainian literature

During this period of history there was a higher number of elementary schools per population in the Hetmanate than in either neighboring Muscovy or Poland. In the 1740s, of 1,099 settlements within seven regimental districts, as many as 866 had primary schools. The German visitor to the Hetmanate, writing in 1720, commented on how the son of Hetman Danylo Apostol, who had never left Ukraine, was fluent in the Latin, Italian, French, German, Polish and Russian languages
Late 16th and early 17th century included the rise folk epics called dumy. These songs celebrated the activities of the Cossacks and were oral retellings of major Ukrainian historical events in modern Ukrainian language. This period produced Ostap Veresai, a renowned minstrel and kobzar from Poltava province, Ukraine.

The beginnings of written Ukrainian literature

The establishment of Ukrainian literature is believed to have been triggered by the publishing of a widely successful poem Eneida by Ivan Kotliarevsky in 1798, which is one of the first instances of a printed literary work written in modern Ukrainian language. Due to Kotliarevsky's role as the inaugurator of Ukrainian literature, among literary critics he is often referred to as "the father of Ukrainian literature". Modern Ukrainian prose was inaugurated by Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko’s novel Marusya.

Iryna Vilde

Ukrainian writer Iryna Vilde was born on 5 May 1907 in Czernowitz, Austro-Hungarian monarchy and died on 30 October 1982 in Lviv. Her father was Dmytro Makohon, a lecturer and writer on folk arts. She graduated from Lviv University in 1932. She was married to :uk:Полотнюк Євген|Eugene Polotnyuk.
From 1930 to 1939 she published short stories and novels about the life of Western Ukrainian intelligentsia, the petty bourgeoisie and students. In 1935 she, for the first time under the pseudonym "Iryna Vilde" published the novel "The Butterflies in high heels".
After the reunification of Western Ukraine with Ukrainian SSR, she continued to describe the familiar themes of family in bourgeois society. She is the author of many short stories, novellas and novels. Her work contain a huge number of characters – protagonists from all public layers of the then Galicia – of the clergy, employees, workers, peasants, petty bourgeoisie, as well as information on the activities of various parties and public organizations, the Polish administration policy, the economy, education and the culture.
Some of her work are: The collection of short stories "Bizarre Heart", the story "Adult Children", a collection of lyrical miniatures "Okrushyny", the trilogy "Butterflies heels", novels "Adult Children", "Sisters Richynski", the trilogy "Butterflies on hairpins". "Sisters Richynski" is considered to be her most creative achievement.

Contemporary literature

Since the late 1980s, and particularly after the independence of Ukraine and disappearance of Soviet censorship the whole generation of writers emerged: Moysey Fishbein, Yuri Andrukhovych, Serhiy Zhadan, Oksana Zabuzhko, Oleksandr Irvanets, Izdryk, Maria Matios, Ihor Pavlyuk and many others. Many of them are considered to be "postmodernists".
At the same time the post-neoclassical literary trend has grown where the main figures are Igor Kaczurowskyj and Maksym Strikha.

List of notable Ukrainian writers

Ukrainian writers include :