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Modernism in Kyiv: Jubilant Experimentation

Edited by Irena R. Makaryk and Virlana Tkacz

© 2010

The study of modernism has been largely focused on Western cultural centres such as Paris, Vienna, London, and New York. Extravagantly illustrated with over 300 photos and reproductions, Modernism in Kyiv demonstrates that the Ukrainian capital was a major centre of performing and visual arts as well as literary and cultural activity. While arguing that Kyiv's modernist impulse is most prominently displayed in the experimental work of Les Kurbas, one of the masters of the early Soviet stage, the contributors also examine the history of the city and the artistic production of diverse groups including Ukrainians, Russians, Jews, and Poles.

Until now a silent presence in Western accounts of the cultural topography of modernism, multicultural Kyiv is here restored to its historical, intellectual, and artistic complexity. Excerpts taken from the works of artists, writers, and critics as well as the numerous illustrations help give life to the exciting creativity of this period. The first book-length examination of this subject, Modernism in Kyiv is a breakthrough accomplishment that will become a standard volume in the field.

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Product Details

  • World Rights
  • Page Count: 666 pages
  • Dimensions: 6.9in x 1.4in x 9.8in
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  • PUBLISHED MAR 2015

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    ISBN 9781442640986
  • PUBLISHED MAY 2010

    From: $40.50

    Regular Price: $54.00

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Quick Overview

The first book-length examination of this subject, Modernism in Kyiv is a breakthrough accomplishment that will become a standard volume in the field.

Modernism in Kyiv: Jubilant Experimentation

Edited by Irena R. Makaryk and Virlana Tkacz

© 2010

The study of modernism has been largely focused on Western cultural centres such as Paris, Vienna, London, and New York. Extravagantly illustrated with over 300 photos and reproductions, Modernism in Kyiv demonstrates that the Ukrainian capital was a major centre of performing and visual arts as well as literary and cultural activity. While arguing that Kyiv's modernist impulse is most prominently displayed in the experimental work of Les Kurbas, one of the masters of the early Soviet stage, the contributors also examine the history of the city and the artistic production of diverse groups including Ukrainians, Russians, Jews, and Poles.

Until now a silent presence in Western accounts of the cultural topography of modernism, multicultural Kyiv is here restored to its historical, intellectual, and artistic complexity. Excerpts taken from the works of artists, writers, and critics as well as the numerous illustrations help give life to the exciting creativity of this period. The first book-length examination of this subject, Modernism in Kyiv is a breakthrough accomplishment that will become a standard volume in the field.

Continue Reading Read Less

Product Details

  • World Rights
  • Page Count: 666 pages
  • Dimensions: 6.9in x 1.4in x 9.8in

  • Reviews

    '[Modernism in Kyiv] is a ground-breaking examination and study of the historical, intellectual, and artistic complexity of Kyiv in the years of modernism.'
    Oksana Zakydalsky, The Ukrainian Weekly

    'Impressive, richly illustrated volume...This book is successful in creating a strong impression of early twentieth century Kyiv as a bustling and sophisticated major cultural centre... A careful reading of this book will prove an eye opening experience both for specialists and general readers.'
    Marko Robrt Stech
    Canadian Slavonic Papers: vol52:3-4:2010

    ‘This book is a fun read that captures the exuberance of the time, place, and the people that it describes. It is highly recommended to anyone interested in Modernism, in Ukrainian art and literature, to anyone with a desire to live, to experience, to try something new. ’
    Natalie Kononenko
    Slavic & East European Review; vol 55:02:2011

    ‘We should be grateful to Makaryk and Tkacz for selecting, editing, and publishing such a rich concordance to the study of international Modernism.’


    John E. Bowlt
    Slavonica

    ‘Modernism in Kyiv, a massive, richly illustrated collection of essays, provides a spectacular introduction to the artistic life of this city.’


    Robert Crane
    Theatre Journal

    "Irena Makaryk and Virlana Tkacz’s volume on the dynamic cultural life of Kyiv in the age of modernism represents a momentous achievement in English-language scholarship on Ukrainian culture. The volume recovers the neglected but rich modernist culture of Ukraine for the English-speaking reader, but its significance is, by virtue of the scope and framing of the project, also wider than this: in its attention to transnational cultural dynamics and (neo)colonial frameworks and attitudes, the volume represents a corrective to the metropolitan orientation of scholarship on modernist culture."


    Uilleam Blacker, University College London
    Harvard Ukrainian Studies

    'Modernism in Kyiv restores the multicultural city of Kyiv to its rightful position as a major player in the dialogue and cross-pollination of ideas occurring between important modernist figures in centers such as Paris, New York, London, and Vienna. Engaging and highly readable, this collection is impressive in its scope, depth, and breadth.'
    Michael Naydan, Woskob Family Professor of Ukrainian Studies, The Pennsylvania State University

    'Modernism in Kyiv is truly a breakthrough accomplishment, and one that promises to become a paradigm-defining event. For the first time, the city of Kyiv is revealed to the English-language readership as a neglected major center of creative innovation during the early Modernist era. No other volume of similar ambition, scope, comprehensiveness, and focus exists about any city in Ukraine and most of the nations of Eastern and Central Europe.'
    Vitaly Chernetsky, Department of German, Russian, and East Asian Languages, Miami University

  • Author Information

    Irena R. Makaryk is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of English at the University of Ottawa.


    Virlana Tkacz is the artistic director of the Yara Arts Group in New York.

  • Table of contents

    Contents

     

    Acknowledgments

    Permissions

    List of Illustrations

    A Note on Transliteration

    Introduction: Reconnecting Modernisms 3
    IRENA R. MAKARYK

    PART ONE KYIV: 'SPECIAL AND BEWILDERING'

    Les Kurbas Foreword to Victor Auburtin, Art Is Dying (excerpt)
    1 Modernism in Kyiv: Jubilant Experimentation
    IRENA R. MAKARYK

    Serhy Yefremov 'How beautiful Kyiv is' (diary excerpt)
    2 'A Theatrical Mecca': The Stages of Kyiv in 1907
    MAYHILL C. FOWLER


    Pavlo Tychyna     'Dawn'
    3 'Special and Bewildering': A Portrait of Late-Imperial
    and Early Soviet Kyiv
    MICHAEL F. HAMM


    Legend of Sweet Michael and the Golden Gates
    4 Three Novels, Three Cities
    TARAS KOZNARSKY

    Tsar Nicholas II and Lev Trotsky On Film
    5 Film in Kyiv, 1910-19160
    OLEH SYDOR-HYBELYNDA

    PART 2 KYIV THE EPICENTRE

    Les Kurbas On Rhythm (diary excerpt)
    6 In the Epicentre of Abstraction: Kyiv during the Time of Kurbas
    DMYTRO HORBACHOV

    Volodymyr Koriak 'To the Isles Electric!' (excerpt)
    7 The Yiddish Kultur-Lige
    GENNADY ESTRAIKH

    Pavlo Tychyna 'You Tell Me'
    8 Politics and the Ukrainian Avant-garde
    MYROSLAV SHKANDRIJ

    Les Kurbas On Art (Diary excerpt)
    9 Kyiv's Multicultural Theatrical Life, 1917-19260
    HANNA VESELOVSKA

    PART 3 'FIRE AND MOTION'

    Pavlo Tychyna 'In the Orchestra of the Cosmos' (excerpt)
    10 Towards a New Vision of Theatre: Les Kurbas's Work
    at the Young Theatre in Kyiv
    VIRLANA TKACZ

    Taras Shevchenko 'The Sky's Unwashed'

    Serge Lifar On Movement (excerpt)

    11 The Choreographic Avant-garde in Kyiv, 1916-1921:
    Bronislava Nijinska and Her École de Mouvement
    MARIA RATANOVA

    Pavlo Tychyna 'The Highest Power'
    12 Kyiv, the 1920s, and Modernism in Music
    DAGMARA TURCHYN-DUVIRAK

    Pavlo Tychyna 'Lull' (excerpt)
    13 Music in the Theatre of Les Kurbas
    YANA LEONENKO

    PART 4 THE INVISIBLE MADE VISIBLE

    Bronislava Nijinska On the Theatre (notebook excerpt)

    14 Les Kurbas's Early Work at the Berezil: From Bodies in Motion
    to Performing the Invisible
    VIRLANA TKACZ

    Vladimir Lenin 'Why worship the new?'
    15 Abstraction and Ukrainian Futurist
    Literature
    OLEH S. ILNYTZKYJ

    Kliment Redko 'Arm in arm' (autobiography excerpt)
    16 The Graphics Arts: From Page Design to Theatre
    MYROSLAVA MUDRAK

    Pavlo Tychyna 'Rhythm'
    17 Dissecting Time/Space: The Scottish Play and the New
    Technology of Film
    IRENA R. MAKARYK

    Natalka Bilotserkivets     'We'll not die in Paris'
    18 On the World Stage: The Berezil in Paris and New York
    IRENA R. MAKARYK

    PART 5 ELEGIES: REFLECTIONS ON THE FUTURE PAST

    Serhiy Zhadan 'The End of Ukrainian Syllabotonic Verse'
    19 Vsevolod Meyerhold and Les Kurbas
    BÉATRICE PICON-VALLIN WITH VERONIKA GOPKO-
    PEREVERZEVA

    Pericles 'Funeral Oration over the Athenian Dead' (excerpt)

    20 Les Kurbas and the Spiritual Foundations of the Ukrainian
    Avant-garde
    NELLI KORNIENKO

    Les Kurbas 'Premonition'

    Appendices
    1 Production List
    2 Kyiv, Historical Timeline

    Contributors
    Index

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