Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures

SLA228H1, Spring Semester, 20th Century Ukrainian Fiction in Translation, 2023

Class meeets on Thursdays from 1:00 to 3:00 PM.

Papers

Term papers are due directly after the last class, November 30, 2023, but no later than midnight December 11, 2023. Papers are to be 5–6 pages, typed, double spaced, and in English. Papers are to be written on topics approved by the instructor.

Paper topics

1. Examine any one novel in depth. What are it’s major themes? How does the writer integrate these themes into his/her story, into his/her writing technique?
2. Examine any two works that portray a strong hero. Compare the qualities of these protagonists.
3. Examine the theme of “humanism” in Honchar’s Man and Arms.
4. Examine any one novel from the perspective of Soviet ideology. How strictly does the novel keep to ideological strictures? Where does it depart from these strictures?
5. Examine the role of “the West” in any one or two novels. How is “the West” presented? What are its characteristics? What influence does or should it have in Ukraine? This applies mostly to the later readings.
6. What is the role of the land, the soil, the landscape in Ukrainian fiction? Choose any one or two works and explore the importance of land, of place, of agriculture in these works.
7. Compare Valerii Shevchuk’s The Meek Shall Inherit with The Paterik of the Kievan Caves Monastery, translated by Muriel Heppell, available in Robarts BX583 .K5 K4413 1989.
8. How does Yuri Andrukhovych's Recreations depict the significance of Art and Culture in society? Compare this with the depiction of writing in Valerian Pidmohylny's The City (Misto).
9. How does goodness exist in the modern world depicted by Emma Andievska in A Novel About a Good Person?
10. The best topic is to choose one of your own. Email the instructor to confirm your idea.