Modernism in Kyiv: Jubilant Experimentation

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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Modernism in Kyiv: Jubilant Experimentation

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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Modernism in Kyiv: Jubilant Experimentation

Modernism in Kyiv: Jubilant Experimentation

Modernism in Kyiv: Jubilant Experimentation

Modernism in Kyiv: Jubilant Experimentation

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Overview

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.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781442698802
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Publication date: 05/22/2010
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 680
File size: 17 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

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

What People are Saying About This

Vitaly Chernetsky

'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

Michael Naydan

'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

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