Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures

SLA268. THE COSSACKS! Fall 2023

Class meets on Wednesdays from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM in Carr Hall 406.

Required texts

These books are available at the University of Toronto bookstore.
You may very well be able to find used copies of these books. They are used in other courses and may prove useful to you later. While almost all these texts (sometimes in different versions) are available online, you may find it useful to purchase these books.

• Paul Robert Magocsi. A History of Ukraine. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996. ISBN: 0802078206. Also available online, see below.
  We read only chapters 14–24, (pages 170–302 in 1st edition; 177–306 in the 2nd ed.).
• The Complete Tales of Nikolai Gogol, ed. Leonard J. Kent, Volume One and Volume Two. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1985. ISBN: 0226300684 (pbk. : v. 1); ISBN: 0226300692 (pbk. : v. 2)
  We read Taras Bulba from Volume 2, and "A Terrible Vengeance" from Volume 1.
  You will find an alternate translation of Taras Bulba here, here, and here.
• Leo Tolstoy. The Cossacks and Other Stories. Tr. David McDuff and Paul Foote. Penguin Classics. An alternate translation is available for free on-line here, here, and here.
• Henryk Sienkiewicz. With Fire and Sword. Tr. Jeremiah Curtin. Rpt of the Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1898 edition. Online text (It's free, but inconvenient for reading). The text has been reproduced in a number of formats at the Gutenberg project, look here. We read these chapters: 1–4, 6, 8–23, and 26–36.
• Isaac Babel. Red Cavalry and Other Stories. Trans. David McDuff. Penguin. Or the Dralyuk translation.
• Alexander Pushkin. The Queen of Spades and Other Stories. Tr. Alan Myers. Oxford World's Classics.
  An alternate translation of The Captain's Daughter (using a different translation of the title) is available here.

Required readings available online.

• Paul Robert Magocsi. A History of Ukraine. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996. An electronic version of this text is available from Robarts library. Library rules allow you to download up to 162 pages, which is sufficient to download chapters 14–24. To download the pages you need (170–302) enter 197–329 in the selection of pages you want.
• Nikolai Gogol, Taras Bulba. Electronic versions in different translations are available here, here, and here.
• Nikolai Gogol, “A Terrible Vengeance”. This is not a great translation. The one by Leonard Kent is much better.
• Leo Tolstoy. “The Cossacks and Other Stories.” Alternate translations are available for free on-line here and here.
• Henryk Sienkiewicz. With Fire and Sword. Online text (It's free, but inconvenient for reading). The text has been reproduced in a number of formats at the Gutenberg project, look here. We read these chapters: 1–4, 6, 8–23, and 26–36.
• Alexander Pushkin. An alternate translation of The Captain's Daughter (using a different translation of the title) is available here.
• Ukrainian Dumy. Toronto: CIUS/HURI, 1979.
• Ivan Kotliarevsky. The Aeneid, excerpt.
• Taras Shevchenko. Selections from his poems dealing with Cossacks. We are reading:
• The river to the blue sea flows, 13–14
• The Night of Taras, 34–39
• Ivan Pidkova, 40–42
• The Haidamaks, 59–126
• Hamaliya, 143–49
• Chihrin, 151–53
• To N. V. Gogol, 181–82
• The Blind Man, 194–215
• Subotiv, 227–28
• There once were wars, 556–57
• Panteleimon Kulish. The Black Council.
• Sholom Ash. Kiddush Ha-Shem. This is a big file, be patient downloading it.
• Alexander Pushkin. "Poltava."
• Lord Gordon George Byron. "Mazeppa."
• Victor Hugo. "Mazeppa." This is in French. There is a very confusing and barely comprehensible English translation here.

Image library

• Ilya Repin. The Zaporozhians Write a Letter to the Sultan.
• Cossack Mamay. A google image search for this term shows a very large array of pictures, some old and authentic, others modern, and some plain silly.
  This wiki page has fewer images and more information.
• Ivan Mazepa. Consult the images on this Ukrainian language wiki page.
• Jean Louis Théodore Géricault, Der Page Mazeppa
• Eugene Delacroix. Mazeppa
• Claude Joseph Vernet. Mazeppa and the Wolves
• Courier and Ives print for an edition of Byron's Mazeppa.
• Louis Boulanger. Mazeppa
• Horace_Vernet. Mazeppa.

Background Readings

• Gerus, O.W., "Manifestations of the Cossack Idea in Modern History: The Cossack Legacy and its Impact," Ukrains'kyi istoryk (1986), no. 1-2
• George G. Grabowicz. "Between History and Myth: Perceptions of the Cossack Past in Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian Romantic Literature." American Contributions to the Ninth International Congress of Slavists, Kiev September 1983, Volume 2 Literature, Poetics, History. Ed. Paul Debreczeny. Columbus: Slavica, 1983. pp. 173–88.
• George G. Grabowicz. "Three Perspectives on the Cossack Past: Gogol', Ševčenko, Kuliš." Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 2 (June 1981), pp. 171-194.
• Joo-Yup Lee. Qazaqlïq, or Ambitious Brigandage, and the Formation of the Qazaqs: State and Identity in Post-Mongol Central Eurasia Leiden: Brill, 2016. ISBN13: 9789004306486
• Clarence Manning. "Mazeppa in English Literature. Ukrainian Quarterly, Volume 15, No. 2 (June 1959), pp. 133–44."
• Prymak, Thomas M. "Voltaire on Mazepa and early eighteenth-century Ukraine." Canadian Journal of History 47.2 (2012): 259
• Christina Pelenski. "Delacroix's "Mazeppa" Oil Painting Rediscovered." Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Vol. 7, Okeanos: Essays presented to Ihor Ševčenko on his Sixtieth Birthday by his Colleagues and Students (1983), pp. 507-519.
• Sysyn, Frank. "The Reemergence of the Ukrainian Nation and Cossack Mythology," Social Research, Volume 58, Issue 4, pp. 845 - 864
• In French, from the volume Les Cosaques de l'Ukraine. Eds. Michel Cadot and Emile Kruba. Paris: Presses de la Sorbonne nouvelle, 1995
• Victor Brexunenko. "Les relations entre la cosaquerie ukrainienne et celle du Don aux XVI et XVII siècles." pp. 75–83.
• Oleksander Fedoruk. "Le potrait cosaque dans la peinture ukrainienne des XVII et XVIII siècles."
• Taras Filenko "Ukrainian Songs with Historical and Cossack Themes in the Works of Western European Composers."
• Nina Herasymova-Persyds'ka. "Les Cosaques et la culture musicale à l'époque de la «Renaissance nationale»."
• Mykola Zulyns'kyj. "L'épopée cosaque, sujet artistique et de développement de la conscience nationale."
• Emile Kruba. "Les Cosaques dans le Kobzar de Taras Sevcenko."
• Maria Delaperrière. "Le Cosaque dans la littérature polonaise : héros ou antihéros?"
• Olga Camel-Mandzukova. "Thèmes et personnages cosaques dans le théâtre ukrainien."
• Udo Gehrmann. "The Image of the Cossacks in the 18th and 19th century German Literature."
• Volodymyr Pohrebennyk. "Les chefs cosaques dans la poésie ukrainienne de la fin du xixe au début du XXe siècle. (Le triptyque poétique sur Bajda)."
• Olha Witochynska. "La noblesse cosaque dans le drame Boyarynia de Lessia Oukraïnka."
• François De Labriolle. "Les Cosaques dans l'œuvre d'Isaac Babel'."
• Myxajlyna Kocjubyns'ka. "L'esprit et l'image de la cosaquerie dans la poésie ukrainienne contemporaine."
• Victor Koptilov. "Le thème cosaque dans la poésie ukrainienne du xxe siècle."

Suggestions for Further Reading

• Babinski, Hubert. The Mazeppa legend in European romanticism. New York : Columbia University Press, 1974. NX652 .M3 B32
• Glaser, Amelia, ed. Stories of Khmelnytsky: Competing Literary Legacies of the 1648 Ukrainian Cossack Uprising. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2015.
• Glaser, Amelia. Jews and Ukrainians in Russia's Literary Borderlands: From the Shtetl Fair to the Petersburg Bookshop. Evanston, Ill: Northwestern University Press, 2012. PG3501 .U4 G57 2012X
• Les Cosaques de l'Ukraine. Eds. Michel Cadot and Emile Kruba. Paris: Presses de la Sorbonne nouvelle, 1995. DK508.55 .C67 1995X
• Grabowicz, George Gregory. The History and Myth of the Cossack Ukraine in Polish and Russian Romantic Literature. PhD diss., Harvard University, 1975. Microfilm. PG G733
• Gregorovich, Andrew . Cossack Bibliography. Toronto: Forum, 2008. Z2517 .C58 G73 2008
• Grob, Thomas. "'Mazepa' as a Symbolic Figure of Ukrainian Autonomy," Democracy and Myth in Russia and Eastern Europe. Woll, Alexander, and Harald Wydra, eds. London: Routledge, 2008. Print. pp. 79-97.
• Kiebuzinski, Ksenya. Paris to Poltava: Ukrainian Cossacks as an imagined community in nineteenth-century French culture. PhD diss. Brandeis University, 2002.
• Kornblatt, Judith Deutsch . The Cossack Hero in Russian Literature. Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1992. PG2989 .H4 K67 1992
  As the title implies, this author adheres to an extremely Russo-centric view of Cossacks, but the analyses of texts nevertheless offer valuable insights.
• Marker, Gary. "Casting Mazepa's Legacy: Pylyp Orlyk and Feofan Prokopovich." The Slavonic and East European Review, Volume 88, Numbers 1-2, 1 January/April 2010, pp. 110–33.
• Nadav, Mordekhai. "The Jewish Community of Nemyriv in 1648: Their Massacre and Loyalty Oath to the Cossacks." Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Vol. 8, No. 3/4 (December 1984), pp. 376-395
• Plokhy, Serhii. The Cossack myth: History and nationhood in the age of empires. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. DK508.46 .P55 2012X
• Shevchuk, Vasyl. Blood Brothers. Trans. Yuri Tkach. Doncaster, Australia: Bayda Books, 1980. Optional