Tamara Hundorova. The Feminism of Olha Kobylianska: Melancholy, High Culture, and Nationalism

In her presentation, Prof. Tamara Hundorova will focus on Kobylianska’s feminism as a complex intellectual project that emerged at the intersection of European ideas of women’s emancipation, Nietzsche’s concept of high culture, and modern nation-building. Particular attention will be paid to the notion of the melancholic ‘new woman’ and its autobiographical significance in Kobylianska’s work. The discussion will address the tension between feminine nature and spiritual self-realization, individual freedom and social expectations, and emancipation and motherhood. The presentation will also consider Kobylianska’s self-identification within the context of Ukrainian and German literature.

Prof. Tamara Hundorova is a literary and cultural studies scholar, a Doctor of Sciences, and a corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. She is an associate scholar at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, dean of the Ukrainian Free University, and a senior research fellow at the Shevchenko Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. She is a member of PEN Ukraine. She is the author of several seminal studies, among them The Post-Chornobyl Library: Ukrainian Postmodernism of the 1990s; Transit Culture and Postcolonial Trauma; Леся Українка. Книги Сивілли; Кітч і література. Травестії; Франко і/не Каменяр; Femina melancholica. Стать і культура в гендерній утопії Ольги Кобилянської, and others. She is a recipient of the Fulbright Fellowship, the fellowships of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and the Philipp Schwartz Initiative of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Jacyk Distinguished Fellowship, the Shklar Fellowship at Harvard and the Foreign Visitors Fellowship at Hokkaido University. Prof. Hundorova has taught at Princeton University, Harvard University, the University of Toronto, the Ukrainian Free University, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, the Ukrainian Catholic University, and the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

Доповідь відбудеться українською мовою. Дискусія українською та англійською.

The presentation will be held in Ukrainian. The discussion will be in Ukrainian and English.

Registration is required. Suggested donation is $20

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