Buried on a Mound: Shevchenko in Folklore and Fakelore

Kyiv literature historian, critic and writer Mikhail Nazarenko has compiled a thematically complete and organized collection of tales about Taras Shevchenko.  The book includes re-tellings that supplement the real biography of the poet or directly contradict it, rumors and gossip, memories of old men, fantastic tales (including stoires about the posthumous life of the immortal Kobzar), ideologically verified folklore of the Soviet era and “psevdoshevchenkian” texts, that is, texts that  have nothing to do with the poet, but are attached to the “basic myth”. Nazarenko provides  conceptual comments and essays on the folklore and fakelore.

The first edition of this book was published in 2006. This second edition includes 200 new sources and an updated bibliography with 400 citations. The volume contains 240 photos and reproductions.