Ukrainian Studies

Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures

SLA199H. Invisible Kingdom, Imaginary Space. Imaginary Galicia. Fall 2025


Lviv Opera

Class meets on Tuesdays from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM in Alumni Hall 304. Update Quercus links!


Instructor:Maxim Tarnawsky121 St. Joseph St. Alumni Hall 403
 maxim.tarnawsky@utoronto.ca 416-978–8972  


Course Schedule

Schedule of Class Meetings
Week Date Topic Assigned Reading
Week 1. Tue Sept 2 Introduction. History, Myth, Fiction. Visual images. History of GaliciaNorman Davies. "Galicia: Kingdom of the Naked and Starving (1773–1918)." Excerpt from Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe, New York: Penguin Books, 2011, pp. 449–81.
Week 2. Tue Sept 9Industry comes to the provinces Ivan. Franko. Boa Constrictor
Week 3. Tue Sept 16Sex, Women, and strange geography Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. “Don Juan of Kolomea,” and “The Man Who Re-Enlisted.” (Love. The Legacy of Cain. pp. 16–117)
Week 4. Tue Sept 23The unusual people who live here. Hutsuls and others
Assignment 1 due.
Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi, “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors”; Vasyl Stefanyk, “The Stone Cross,” “The Recruit's Farewell,” and “Maple Leaves.” (The Stone Cross, pp. 19–32; 89–97)
Week 5. Tue Sept 30How does Galicia fit into Austria? Karl Emil Franzos, “The Shylok of Barnow”; Joseph Roth. “Strawberries,” “The Bust of the Emperor” and chapter 9 and 11 from The Radetzky March.
Week 6. Tue Oct 7 If it's strange, it must be art!Bruno Shulz. Collected Stories. Read all the stories in Cinnamon Shops pp. 1–80 as well as the story “The Sanatorium Under the Hourglass”, pp. 185–204.
Week 7. Tue Oct 14 Were Jews in Galicia modern or old fashioned?
Assignment 2 due.
S.Y Agnon. A Simple Tale Read at least chapters 1–20.
Week 8. Tue Oct 21Western Galicia is a product of Polish history.Stanislaw Wyspianski, "The Wedding"
Oct 28No Class! Reading week!
Week 9. Tue Nov 4An unusual place means a complex society. Ivan Franko. “The Cutthroats,” “The Involuntary Hero.”
Week 10. Tue Nov 11 Complexity begins in the minds of individuals
Assignment 3 due.
Yuri Vynnychuk. Tango of Death
Week 11. Tue Nov 18How is western Galicia different today? Andrzej Stasiuk. Tales of Galicia
Week 12. Tue Nov 25It's all about remembering!
Concluding test.
Stanislaw Lem.Highcastle. (read chaps 1–4, up to pg 71). Józef Wittlin. My Lwów. excerpts. Johann Georg Kohl. “Lemberg”
You're writing your papers!

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Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto