Russia and Ukraine: Literature and the Discourse of Empire from Napoleonic to Postcolonial Times

Tatiana Nazarenko is an assistant professor of Slavic studies at the
University of Manitoba and program co-ordinator of Central and East
European Studies.

This book meticulously explores the paradigm of imperial and nonimperial
discourse in Russian and Ukrainian writing of the 19th and 20th
centuries in the broader framework of postcolonial theory. Alongside the
imperialistic traditions in both literatures, the author argues, there
exists a counter-discourse that articulates anti-imperialistic
aspirations and asserts national cultural claims on the level of the
narrative and the metaphorical structures. Carefully selected works by
Russian and Ukrainian authors—ranging from prominent figures (Pushkin,
Lermontov, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Bulgakov, Shevchenko, Franko, Lesia
Ukrainka, Stus) to less-known literati—are analyzed in the light of
this juxtaposition and clash of discourses. To provide a political and
cultural context for the discussion, the views of literary critics,
historians, and politicians on Russian and Ukrainian identity, cultural
history, and related issues are incorporated into the analysis.

The core of the book is a detailed analysis of imperial borderlines in
Russian literature, the representation of Ukraine in imperial discourse
of various genres, counter-narratives in Ukrainian literature, and the
clash of discourses in the publicistic pieces, textbooks, and
historiographic and literary works produced in the second half of the
19th century. Individual chapters are devoted to the literary works of
20th-century Ukrainian modernist writers, early Soviet writing, and
recent examples of Ukrainian postcolonial writing.

Discussion of texts of contemporary Russian writers (Galina
Shcherbakova, Viktor Pelevin, etc.) that illustrate imperial or
post-imperial tendencies in the Russian literature produced after the
collapse of the Soviet empire would have enhanced the volume.
Nevertheless, Russia and Ukraine is an important contribution to the
Slavic and postcolonial studies.