STUDIES

Russian Projects of Europeanism and the Polish Factor (from the Middle Ages to the Age of Nationalisms)

Alexander V. Lipatov

The historical paths followed by Poles and Russians towards Europe-from a common geographical space (as it appeared in Antiquity) to a common civilizational space (which took shape as various ethnic groups adopted the universal values of Christianity) were distinctly different. And it was this that determined the particularity both of the way in which they expressed universal cultural values and the way in which they understood their own identity as offshoots of those values, thus influencing the notions they had of each other as neighbours.

The poet Dmitry Prigov before and after the fall of the Soviet Union

Per-Arne Bodin

The Russian poet and artist Dmitrij Prigov (1940-2007) dedicated his whole life to undermining Soviet propaganda, Soviet ideology and Soviet language. He deconstructed Russian culture in general, including Pushkin and Dostoevsky as well as the Russian avant-garde, in a similar manner. With his death a moment of closure was reached for an entire era of Russian culture as primarily characterized by settlements with Socialist Realism, Soviet language and Soviet propaganda.

One Sixth of the World: Avant-garde Film, the Revolution of Vision, and the Colonization of the USSR Periphery during the 1920s (Towards a Postcolonial Deconstruction of the Soviet Hegemony)

Irina Sandomirskaja

Although this article was originally presented at a conference on postcoloniality, I have to begin with a few reservations about the applicability of this term to the territories that were formerly owned or controlled by the USSR, and especially with regard to its Western frontier, i.e. the present-day Baltic States and the states of former Eastern Europe.[1] There are three objections against subsuming these

The Postcolonial Moment in Ukrainian Writing

Myroslav Shkandrij

My own experiences growing up in England and attending university were probably decisive in steering me in the direction of postcolonial studies. Upon entering Cambridge University I was questioned about my background. Learning that I was Ukrainian, one tutor, a Russian émigré, told me that the only difference between Russian and Ukrainian was the letter "h". A Russian, he informed, would say "Glavnyi gorod Galitsiii, eto - Lvov." A Ukrainian, on the other hand, would say "Hlavnyi horod Halitsii, eto - Lvov." When I countered that the correct Ukrainian was: "Holovne misto Halychyny, tse - Lviv," his answer was: "A, net, eto vy po-polski!" (Oh, no, now you're speaking Polish!) A second tutor, an Englishman, immediately began explaining to me that the Cossacks were simply bandits. My response was to cite the evidence of folklore and history showing that they were seen as defenders of a national movement and identity. I should add that these "introductions" to the subject on the part of my

Colonial and Postcolonial Aspects of Polish Discourse on the Eastern „Borderlands"

Bogusław Bakuła

In this article I shall discuss works of literary theory and cultural theory published in Poland after 1989 and dedicated to the subject of the so-called Eastern „Borderlands", i.e. the territories to the east of Poland's current border, which at various times in history were part of the Polish state. We have already witnessed a great wave of interest in émigré thinking and literature belonging to the so-called „Borderlands" discourse, and we have also seen a period of intense development in „Borderlands" thinking in such areas as history, literary theory, ethnology and sociology. Almost everything of worth has been reprinted from those works that arose in émigré circles. It is difficult to count the number of conferences, seminars, collective volumes and individual works that have dealt with various aspects of this matter. Many new literary texts, memoirs, scientific and academic works related to this field are still appearing. Several tenth websites established by aficionados of the „Borderlands" can be found on the Internet - currently these constitute a separate communication circle. The „Borderlands" surround us on all sides; I would even go so far as to say that their multiplication and hyperbolization in a country the size of

In Search of Dracula or, Cultures in Dialogue

Lars Kleberg

In Dracula, Bram Stoker's famous Victorian horror novel, the young British lawyer Jonathan Harker sets out on a journey eastward. When the hero crosses the Danube andenters Transylvania in order to finalize a contract with a local count on the purchase of a piece of real estate in London, he notes a number of disquieting details.

The Experience of Otherness in Polish Poetry After 1990

Anna Kałuża

In Polish poetry written after World War II we can find many traces of a desire of to be settled as well as a need to inhabit a place. These needs and desires are connected with the search for stable meaning and with the perception of space through the category of similarity. We will find few poems that project heterogeneous spaces, poems for which the experience of otherness is constitutive. Contrary to what Levi-Strauss proposes, Polish poetry of the 1960s or later, when the nightmare of the war had become more removed in time, does not enable the reader "to withdraw from the society of men and move into a different society" [Charbonier 2000, 75].
Although the poetry written in these times is concentrated on the idea of community, of the affirmation of a stable order of reality and tradition, encounters with otherness do nevertheless occur. However, the emphasis is placed on the feeling of community identity. The poets of this era feel that they should concentrate on what is eternal, universal, unaffected by time and context. In other words, poetic gestures appear

The Soviet and the Post-Soviet Discourses of Contemporary Ukraine: Literary Scholarship, the Humanities and the Russian-Ukrainian Interface

George G. Grabowicz

The two main topics proposed by this volume-colonialism and postcolonialism on the one hand and Sovietology (which I understand here primarily as the study of the Soviet legacy) on the other-involve broad and important areas which have a special relevance for contemporary Ukraine in general and for Ukrainian studies in particular.

In the Face of the West and the East – The Formation of the Identity of the Polish Intelligentsia after the End of World War II

Janusz Korek

Why did the monthly periodical published from 1947 in Paris by Jerzy Giedroyc take the name "Kultura" ("Culture")? Researchers must have asked themselves this question automatically. Behind this question there obviously lies the premise that the name of the monthly publication was not chosen at random. This must have been the case if only for the reason that all the periodicals published and edited by Giedroyć before the World War II [Korek 2000, 445-449] had names which clearly represented their character. For example, "Bunt Młodych" ("Youth Rebellion") indicated precisely who its publisher and potential readers were, while "Polityka" ("Politics") clearly defined the sphere of its interests and ambitions. During the first years of "Kultura", the problem of the adequacy of the name was not touched upon, which is symptomatic. It was not until the 1960s that comments began to appear about the

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Page 1 of 2

Postcolonial Europe

Russian Projects of Europeanism and the Polish Factor (from the Middle Ages to the Age of Nationalisms)

The poet Dmitry Prigov before and after the fall of the Soviet Union

One Sixth of the World: Avant-garde Film, the Revolution of Vision, and the Colonization of the USSR Periphery during the 1920s (Towards a Postcolonial Deconstruction of the Soviet Hegemony)

The Postcolonial Moment in Ukrainian Writing

Colonial and Postcolonial Aspects of Polish Discourse on the Eastern „Borderlands"

In Search of Dracula or, Cultures in Dialogue

The Experience of Otherness in Polish Poetry After 1990

The Soviet and the Post-Soviet Discourses of Contemporary Ukraine: Literary Scholarship, the Humanities and the Russian-Ukrainian Interface

In the Face of the West and the East – The Formation of the Identity of the Polish Intelligentsia after the End of World War II

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