Ukrainian Studies

Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures

SLA328H1S, The Culture of Contemporary Ukraine, 2016

Instructor:Maxim Tarnawsky121 St. Joseph St. Alumni Hall 403
maxim.tarnawsky@utoronto.ca 926-1300 x3338FAX 978-2672

Reading List

Required textbooks

Readings for this course will be available electronically, except for these four items, which are required and are available at the University of Toronto Bookstore:

The following items are useful as additional reading or duplicate readings that will be available electronically.




Schedule of Readings

This is the schedule for the Spring 2016 course.

Follow this link for the schedule of presentations.

Jan 13 Introduction.
  • What is culture?
    Have a look at these useful websites!
  • Laada Bilaniuk. Contested Tongues. Chapter 1 pp. 13–35.
  • 20Language 1
  • Laada Bilaniuk. Contested Tongues. Chapter 1 pp. 13–35;
    Chapter 2 pp. 37–70,
    Chapter 3 pp. 71–102.
  • 27 Language 2. Surzhyk, Standards, Tension
  • Laada Bilaniuk. Contested Tongues. Chapter 4 pp. 103–141
    Chapter 5 pp. 143–172,
    Chapter 6 pp. 173–193.
  • Serhii Vakulenko. "The European Dimension Within the Current Controversy over the Ukrainian Language Standard",
  • in Contemporary Ukraine on the Cultural Map of Europe, pp. 297–315.
  • See Video materials, Verka Serdiuchka, below
  • Michael Moser. "Colonial Linguistic Reflexes in a Post-Soviet Setting" in Contemporary Ukraine on the Cultural Map of Europe, pp. 316–335.
  • Feb 3 History 1
  • Andrew Wilson. The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation. Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4. pp. 1–71.
  • Oxana Pachlovska. "Finis Europae: Contemporary Ukraine's Conflicting Inheritances from the Humanistic 'West' and the Byzantine 'East' (A Triptych)" in Contemporary Ukraine on the Cultural Map of Europe, pp. 40–68.
  • Mykola Riabchuk. "Cultural Fault Lines and Political Divisions: The Legacy of History in Contemporary Ukraine" in Contemporary Ukraine on the Cultural Map of Europe, pp. 18–28.
  • 10 History 2
  • Andrew Wilson. The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation. Chapters 5, 6, and 7. pp. 72–151.
  • Roman Szporluk. "The Western Dimension of the Making of Modern Ukraine" in Contemporary Ukraine on the Cultural Map of Europe, pp. 3–17.
  • Assignment 1 due.
  • 17 No Class. Reading week
    24 Religion
  • Andrew Wilson. The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation. Chapter 11. pp. 234–252.
  • Senyk, Sophia. "The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Today: Universal Values versus Nationalist Doctrines." Religion, state & society 30.4 (2002):317-332.
  • Borys Gudziak. "Ukrainian Religious Life During the First Five Years of Independence." Towards a New Ukraine II. Meeting the Next Century. Proceedings of a Conference held on October 2-3, 1998 at the University of Ottawa. Theofil Kis, Irena Makaryk, Roman Weretelnyk, eds. Ottawa, Chair of Ukrainian Studies, University of Ottawa, 1999. DK508.846 .T6823 1999. pp. 49–72.
  • Borys Gudziak. "Ukrainian Religious Life During the First Five Years of Independence." Towards a New Ukraine II. Meeting the Next Century. Proceedings of a Conference held on October 2-3, 1998 at the University of Ottawa. Theofil Kis, Irena Makaryk, Roman Weretelnyk, eds. Ottawa, Chair of Ukrainian Studies, University of Ottawa, 1999. DK508.846 .T6823 1999. pp. 49–72.
  • Andrew Sorokowski. "The Status of Religion in Ukraine in Relation to European Standards" in Contemporary Ukraine on the Cultural Map of Europe, pp. 69–88.
  • Yurash, Andrij. "Orthodox-Greek Catholic Relations in Galicia and Their Influence on the Religious Situation in Ukraine." Religion, state & society 33.3 (2005):185-205.
  • Lyubashchenko, Viktoriya. "Protestantism in Ukraine: Achievements and Losses." Religion, state & society 38.3 (2010):265-289.
  • See also optional readings below
  • Mar 2 Regions and Nations
  • Andrew Wilson. The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation. Chapter 10. pp. 207–233.
  • Malanchuk, Oksana. "Social Identification versus Regionalism in Contemporary Ukraine." Nationalities papers 33.3 (2005):345-368.
  • Shulman, Stephen. Cultural comparisons and their consequences for nationhood in Ukraine. Communist and post-communist studies 39.2 (2006):247-263.
  • Grigory Nemiria. "Regionalism: An Underestimated Dimension of State-Building" in Ukraine: The Search for a National Identity, eds. Sharon Wolchik and Volodymyr Zviglyanich. New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000. pp. 183–197. DK508.846 .U377 2000X
  • Taras Kuzio. "Rusyns in Ukraine: Sorting Out Fact from Fiction," Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism, vol.32, nos.1-2 (December 2005).
  • Janusz Bugajski. "Ethnic Relations and Regional Problems in Independent Ukraine." in Ukraine: The Search for a National Identity, eds. Sharon Wolchik and Volodymyr Zviglyanich. New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000. pp. 165–182. DK508.846 .U377 2000X
  • Rudling, Per Anders. "Organized Anti-Semitism in Contemporary Ukraine: Structure, Influence and Ideology: structure, influence and ideology" Canadian Slavonic papers XLVIII.1-2 (2006):81-118.or here.
  • Burakovskiy, Aleksandr. "Key characteristics and transformation of Jewish-Ukrainian relations during the period of Ukraine's independence: 1991-2008." Nationalism & ethnic politics 15.1 (2009):109-132.
  • Burds, Jeffrey. "Ethnic Conflict and Minority Refugee Flight from Post-Soviet Ukraine, 1991-2001." The International Journal of Human Rights 12.5 (2008):689-723.
  • 9Education and Gender
  • Catherine Wanner. "Myths, Legends and the Uses of History in Schools" (Chapter 5) in Burden of Dreams: History, Memory, and the Making of National Identity in Post-Soviet Ukraine Ph.D. Dissertation, Columbia University, 1996. pp. 154–206 (163–213 of the pdf file, note problem in page numbering at pdf page 162).
  • Tetyana Koshmanova. "National Identity and Cultural Coherence in Educational Reform for Democratic Citizenship: The Case of Ukraine", Education, Citizenship and Social Justice. 2006; 1: 105-118. or here
  • Round, John. "The Problems of Corruption in Post-Soviet Ukraine's Higher Education Sector." International journal of sociology 39.2 (2009):80-95.
  • Marian J. Rubchak. "Collective Memory as a Device for Constructing a New Gender Myth" in Contemporary Ukraine on the Cultural Map of Europe, pp. 139–153.
  • Hankivsky, Olena. "Gender Mainstreaming in Post-Soviet Ukraine: Application and Applicability." Journal of communist studies and transition politics 26.3 (2010):315-340.
  • Rewakowicz, Maria. "Women's Literary Discourse and National Identity in Post-Soviet Ukraine" in Contemporary Ukraine on the Cultural Map of Europe, pp. 275–294.
  • 16 Music, Art, and Cinema
  • Romana Bahry. "The Satirical Current in Popular Youth Culture: Rock Music and Film in Ukraine in the 1990s" in Ukraine in the 1990s: Proceedings of the First Conference of the Ukrainian Studies Association of Australia, Monash University, 24-26 January, 1992. DK508.85 .U57 1992
  • Baley, Virko. "'The Past is My Beginning...:' On the recent Music Scene in Ukraine in Contemporary Ukraine on the Cultural Map of Europe, pp. 432–449.
  • Marko Pavlyshyn. "Envisioning Europe: Ruslana's Rhetoric of Identity" in Contemporary Ukraine on the Cultural Map of Europe, pp. 395–410.
  • Catherine Wanner. "Nationalism on Stage: Music and Change in Soviet Ukraine," Retuning Culture: Musical Changes in Central and Eastern Europe. Ed. Mark Slobin. Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press, 1996. p. 136–55.
  • Shkandrij, Myroslav. "Contemporary Ukrainian Art and the Twentieth Century Avant-Garde" in Contemporary Ukraine on the Cultural Map of Europe, pp. 411–294.
  • Shevchuk, Yuri. "Linguistic Strategies of Imperial Appropriation: Why Ukraine is Absent from World Film History" in Contemporary Ukraine on the Cultural Map of Europe, pp. 359–374.
  • Assignment 2 due.
  • 23 Literature
  • Zubrytska, Maria. "Mirrors, Windows, and Maps: The Topology of Cultural Identification in Contemporary Ukrainian Literature" in Contemporary Ukraine on the Cultural Map of Europe, pp. 157–161.
  • Larissa M. L. Zaleska Onyshkevych. "Cultural perceptions, mirror images, and western identification in new Ukrainian drama" in Contemporary Ukraine on the Cultural Map of Europe, pp. 162–185.
  • Michael M. Naydan. "Ukrainian avant-garde poetry today: Bu-ba-bu and others" in Contemporary Ukraine on the Cultural Map of Europe, pp. 186–202.
  • Ola Hnatiuk. "Nativists vs. westernizers: Problems of cultural identity in Ukrainian literature of the 1990s" in Contemporary Ukraine on the Cultural Map of Europe, pp. 203–218.
  • Stech, Marko Robert. "Symbols of Transformation: The Reflection of Ukraine's 'Identity Shift' in Four Ukrainian Novels of the 1990s" in Contemporary Ukraine on the Cultural Map of Europe, pp. 231–248.
  • Pavlyshyn, Marko. "Choosing a Europe: Andrukhovych, Izdryk, and the New Ukrainian Literature" in Contemporary Ukraine on the Cultural Map of Europe, pp. 249–263.
  • 30Crime and counterculture
  • Andrey Kurkov. Death and the Penguin.
  • Ukraine: time for action: torture and ill-treatment in police detention. Amnesty International Publications, (2005).
  • Apr 6 Popular Culture, Sports and Leisure, Media
  • Predborska, Irina. "The Social Position of Young Women in Present-Day Ukraine." Journal of youth studies 8.3 (2005):349-365.
  • Roberts, K. "Young People's Participation In Sport And Other Leisure Activities In The Former Soviet Union." European physical education review 5(1999):75-88. or here
  • Dyczok, Marta. "Ukraine's Changing Communicative Space: Destination Europe or the Soviet Past?" in Contemporary Ukraine on the Cultural Map of Europe, pp. 375–394.
  • Wolburg, Joyce. "'Regulating Sin' Across Cultures: A Comparison of Alcohol Ads in Ukrainian and American Magazines." Journal of advertising 38.4 (2009):15-36.

  • Papers due.

  • In-class test.
    For the test, you must read this short story (there will be a question that refers to it):
    Evhenia Kononenko. "Three Worlds".

    Links to licensed works through the University library only work if you are connected to a U of T server that allows you to access licensed materials or you are logged on to the library server in your browser.


    Video materials






    Additonal Readings

    These are optional readings for students who want to read further on particular topics.

    Language and Surzhyk

    History

    Reviews of Andrew Wilson's The Ukrainians

    Religion

    Music

    Education

    Regionalism

    Family

    Gender and Identity

    Poverty


    SLA 328 Information Information on Other Courses
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