Publications

Taras Shevchenko: The Making of the National Poet

George G. Grabowicz

Revue des études slaves, Paris, LXXXV/3, 2014, p. 421-439.

The bicentennial of Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861) coincided with a remarkable political and social upheaval—a revolution and a national renewal that as of this writing is still ongoing and still under attack in Ukraine.1 The core, and iconic, presence of Shevchenko in that process, and dramatically and symbolically on the Euromaidan itself, has often been ... Continue reading

Demography of a man-made human catastrophe: The case of massive famine in Ukraine 1932–1933

Omelian Rudnytskyi, Nataliia Levchuk, Oleh Wolowyna, Pavlo Shevchuk, Alla Kovbasiuk

Canadian Studies in Population 42, no. 1–2 (2015): 53–80.

Abstract: Estimates of 1932–34 famine direct losses (excess deaths) by age and sex and indirect losses (lost births) are calculated, for the first time, for rural and urban areas of Ukraine. Total losses are estimated at 4.5 million, with 3.9 million excess deaths and 0.6 million lost births. Rural and urban ... Continue reading

New Imaginaries: Youthful Reinvention of Ukraine’s Cultural Paradigm

First published in 2015

Edited and Translated by Marian J. Rubchak; Foreword by Martha Kichorowska Kebalo (New York: Berghahn Books, 2015) Having been spared the constraints imposed on intellectual discourse by the totalitarian regime of the past, young Ukrainian scholars now engage with many Western ideological theories and practices in an atmosphere of intellectual ... Continue reading

Problems with the Horizon of Expectations: The Russian Reception of Ukrainian Literature in the First Half of the 19th Century

George G. Grabowicz

The 1999 J.B. Rudnyckyj Distinguished Lecture Series, University of Manitoba

This paper reflects my longstanding interest both in the history of Ukrainian and Russian literary relations, particularly in the 19th century when they were especially complex and many faceted, and in reception theory.  It is based in some measure on my earlier work, particularly a long study on this subject ... Continue reading

Insight and Blindness in the Reception of Ševčenko: The Case of Kostomarov

George G. Grabowicz

Harvard Ukrainian Studies, Vol. 17, No. 3/4 (December 1993), pp. 279-340

In the broad and formal sense, the reception of Ševčenko began with the reviews in the Russian press of his first slim volume of poetry, the Kobzar of 1840. While at times positive (and once or twice even enthusiastic), their basic imperial perspective allowed them to see only an instance of ... Continue reading

Ukrainian-Russian Literary Relations in the Nineteenth Century: A Formulation of the Problem

George G. Grabowicz

Ukraine and Russia in Their Historic Encounter, Edited by Peter J. Potichnyj, Marc Raeff, Jaroslav Pelenski, Gleb N. Žekulin, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, University of Alberta, Edmonton, 1992, pp. 214-244.

Since my avowed concern is with formulations, I should state at the outset that from my perspective the relation between Ukraine and Russia is not that of an “encounter,” even a “historical encounter,” but something much more intimate and long-lasting–in the language of soviet pathos, a historical and indissoluble embrace ... Continue reading

Pavlo Tychyna (1891-1967)

Dr. George G. Grabowicz

European Writers, The Twentieth Century, Vol. 10, pages 1651 - 1676. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 1990.

“The measure of Pavlo Tychyna’s preeminence in the history of twentieth-century Ukrainian literature is perhaps best conveyed by the fact that he is considered the outstanding poet of his time, and arguably of this century, by both Soviet and non-Soviet readers and critics. Apart from this point of convergence, however, ... Continue reading