| Sažetak (engleski) | The topic of this thesis is Ukrainian literary postmodernism which, due to the specific historical and cultural context that will be presented in this thesis, had special functions and developmental characteristics. A detailed analysis has been conducted on a corpus of Ukrainian literature which consists of novels, short stories and dramas. The texts are divided into groups and sub-groups according to their characteristics and authorship. Their composition, the motivation of the literary processes, their characteristics and their meaning was analysed with the aim of demonstrating what is common and what is particular within the corpus of Ukrainian postmodern literature. The aim of this thesis is to determine whether or not postmodernism exists in Ukrainian literature and to explore the poetics of that period. The starting hypothesis is that in the period beginning in the 1980s, features that are inherent in both European postmodernism and in the historical and cultural context of Soviet, and more specifically, Ukrainian history and culture, are visible in Ukrainian literature. It has been established that this literary period does in fact exist in Ukrainian literature and has special functions and characteristics. The thesis’ hypothesis that Ukrainian postmodernism does not arise in opposition to modernism but rather in opposition to totalitarian discourse and social realism has also proven to be true. The first chapter provides an overview of the discussions on postmodernism in Ukraine; the periods of the development of discussions of postmodernism from the beginning to the present are laid forth, as are tendencies that have prevailed in particular periods, from a complete rejection to a detailed analysis of postmodern phenomena based on Ukrainian texts. The various approaches to the study of postmodernism in Ukrainian literature are mentioned as well. The first chapter discusses the existing periodization of Ukrainian postmodernism and proposes a new chronological framework for the period in question. The study of new style formations required a reconstruction of the historical context, as well as a new overview of the corpus that preceded the emergence of Ukrainian postmodernism, an interpretation of the advent of nationalism and neo-nationalism, an account of certain works created within the framework of the social realist canon and an examination and concise analysis of the works of the previous literary generations from the 1960s and the underground of the 1970s. Later in the first chapter the directions, which according to the critical representations of Ukrainian scholars coexist with postmodernism at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries in Ukrainian literature, namely neo-modernism and neo-positivism, are set forth. The second chapter defines the features of Ukrainian postmodernism which, according to the author, are considered representative of the various directions of development within Ukrainian postmodernism and represent the main features and specificities of such directions. The reasons for singling out the mentioned authors (Y. Andrukhovych, O. Zabuzhko, Y. Izdryk) from the general literary corpus are explained, and the characteristics of their works are examined. Furthermore, the particularities of Yuri Andrukhovych 's works, which are characteristic of the initial period of Ukrainian carnival postmodernism, are discussed. The second subchapter highlights the features of feminist prose by Oksana Zabuzhko, where a particular emphasis is placed on the inner voice of the woman who speaks openly about her traumas, desires, ambitions and fears and who accuses and analyses the world around her through resentment towards the father of 60s and unrealized love through defeat in her personal life. Oksana Zabuzhko's works represent an intellectual vision of women's selfaffirmation, while generational conflict becomes one of the key conflicts in Ukrainian postmodernism. The last subchapter of chapter two presents Yuri Izdryk’s perfect example of "rhetorical apocalypse" in his work Wozzeck as well as in his other works in which the features of the second wave of postmodernism in Ukrainian literature are developed and which reveal the peripheral, unattractive, flickering world of marginal, lost and sick heroes. Chapter three outlines particular functions of Ukrainian postmodernism, with a special emphasis on the functions of negation, revision and renewal. The functions of negating social realist myths, revising the old canon, confronting old and new fears and emancipation from previous frameworks are all highlighted. The fourth chapter presents an overview of the features of Ukrainian postmodernism. Based on research by Sophia Pavlychko, Tamara Gundorova, Natalia Bedzir and other scholars, the features of postmodernism in literary traditions are highlighted in a general fashion, the features of postmodernism within a narrower post-Soviet scope are discussed, and the features that are inherent in Ukrainian literature are also touched on. Features of postmodernism in Ukrainian literature include a depiction of the correlation between postmodernism and post-totalitarianism, post-colonialism, populism, modernism, avant-garde, kitsch and socialism, and the relationship between modernism and postmodernism within the Ukrainian cultural situation is defined. The final subchapter presents a review of the periodization of literary generations in Ukraine, that is, of aesthetic orientations in the postmodern period. Late twentieth-century Ukrainian literature has certain features that are characteristic of both European post-modernism and of the historico-cultural context of Soviet, as well as Ukrainian culture specifically. The functions and characteristics of Ukrainian literary postmodernism were studied and extracted with reference to previous stylistic formations in literature. In the fifth chapter, an analysis of the phenomenon of Ukrainian postmodernism covering several subchapters was carried out. The subchapter entitled The Stanislav Phenomenon singles out artists from a small, enclosed region in Ukrainian Galicia and depicts their opening up to a world of culture and literature beyond Soviet borders, which has resulted in their works to be considered a separate phenomenon within Ukrainian postmodernism. The subchapter entitled The Hero of New Literature (in a new context) presents an overview of the transformation of heroes which reflects the whole retrospective of the changes made in Ukrainian literature of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The hero’s transformations (the playful performer, the erotic bohemian, the superhero, the ambassador to the West, the sick soul, the sick body, the loser) were explored, and it is noted how from the carefree “carnival” bohemian, the literary hero has transformed into a lost and weak, disoriented and sick hero. In the subchapter entitled The Heroine of New Literature, the phenomenon of women's prose and feminism in Ukrainian literature is discussed. After an analysis of the last two subchapters, it was concluded that the range of the euphoria surrounding the male process of growing up is much broader and more emotional than the woman's mature worldview. The separate phenomena of euphoria, chaos and community, which in the opinion of many scholars (Andreychyk, Gundorova and others) link the works of postmodern writers, are presented. Furthermore, the traditional metaphysical role of language, the deconstruction of traditional language myths and the language play of postmodernists in Ukrainian literature is also examined. It was concluded that along with the deconstruction and demythologization of language and language play in postmodern literature, the metaphysical aspect of language is present in the works of some authors. An alternate history of Kozheljanko and Irvanec in the new novel, in short stories and in narratives is presented as a therapeutic and very courageous project. The fifth chapter analyses the attitude that previous periods of Ukrainian literature had towards the classics of Ukrainian literature as well as the link between old and new literature as represented in the works of Taras Shevchenko, B.I. Antonych, I. Kotlyarevsky and Lesya Ukrainka. Ukrainian and Soviet myths in new works experienced their metamorphosis because writers use them for their own new, aesthetic purposes. Following an analysis of the mentioned phenomena, the results and insights on the phenomena of Ukrainian postmodernism are briefly presented. The new hero of Ukrainian literature emerges in opposition to socio-realist optimism and powerful heroes and, at the same time, to the ardent and self-sacrificing fighter for Ukrainian independence. The literary hero, and thus the author himself, ceased to be the leader of the people, and simply became a writer, thereby diminishing his role in society; new characteristics of marginalized personality which are peculiar to Ukrainian prose were born. Research together with the aforementioned scholarly works by Ukrainian and foreign scholars have confirmed the assumption that Ukrainian postmodernism exists. They have also helped to detect numerous occurrences and phenomena within postmodernism as well as identify the scope and boundaries of this cultural and stylistic phenomenon. It has been found that discussions and studies that have evolved in relation to new Ukrainian literature testify to the fact that 1980s Ukraine saw the beginning of the active process of a new critical reading of the classics and the formation of a new style formation, that is, Ukrainian postmodernism. The features of Ukrainian postmodernism which are considered representatives of various developmental directions within Ukrainian postmodernism and represent the main features and specificities of such directions were defined according to various authors’ works (Y. Andrukhovych, O. Zabuzhko, Y. Izdryk), and the singularities of these works were analysed. It was established that along with the deconstruction and demythologization of language and language play, in postmodern literature the metaphysical aspect of language is in fact present in some authors. Also, it was shown that there was a transformation in the hero. From a carefree “carnival” bohemian, the literary hero of Ukrainian literary postmodernism transforms into a disoriented, weak and sick hero. It was also established that the range of the euphoria surrounding the male process of growing up is much broader and more emotional than the woman's worldview, which influences the formation of contemporary literature as a whole. An exploration of the poetics of Ukrainian postmodernism in Croatian Ukrainian studies and the broader Slavic context helps shed light on the issues of Ukrainian postmodernism and is imperative to the understanding of this period in recent Ukrainian literature. The study will serve students of Ukrainian studies as a basis for studying and understanding the aforementioned period, but it will also serve a wide range of experts, comparators, and all those interested in Ukrainian literature. |
