Background
Literature, Politics, and Identity: A Conversation with Andrey Kurkov
November 13, 2024, 10:00 PST
The UCLA Library coordinated this online program with renowned Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov in conversation with Dr. Roman Koropeckyj, UCLA professor of Slavic, East European and Eurasian languages and cultures.
Kurkov shared insights into his literary works, his experiences as a writer in contemporary Ukraine, and his reflections on the current political landscape. Dr. Koropeckyj, a leading scholar in Eastern European literature, guided the conversation, providing a deep exploration of Kurkov's unique perspective on the intersection of literature and society.
Organized by Alena Aissing (Librarian/Curator for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies at UCLA Library) with additional sponsorship from the UCLA Department of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures and UCLA Center for European and Russian Studies
Speakers
Andrey Kurkov is a Ukrainian novelist and screenwriter, widely recognized for his sharp wit and satirical portrayal of post-Soviet life. Born in Leningrad in 1961, Kurkov is the author of numerous novels, including Death and the Penguin, which has been translated into over 30 languages. His works explore themes of identity, politics and the complexities of contemporary Ukrainian society. Kurkov is also a commentator on Ukraine's political landscape and has contributed to international publications such as The Guardian and The New York Times.
Dr. Roman Koropeckyj is a distinguished professor of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian languages and cultures at UCLA. Specializing in Polish and Ukrainian literature, his research focuses on 19th-century Romanticism and its impact on national identities in Eastern Europe. He is the author of several scholarly works, including Adam Mickiewicz: The Life of a Romantic, a critically acclaimed biography of Poland’s national poet. A passionate educator, he has also received numerous awards for his teaching and contributions to Slavic studies and Dr. Koropeckyj's expertise in Eastern European literature and culture has him considered a prominent voice in the field.
The video recording of this program is coming soon.
Selected Works
Our Daily War by ISBN: 9781916788688Date: 2025-02-18Ten years on from the annexation of Crimea, two years on from Russia' s all-out invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian people continue to fight back. In the second volume of his war diaries, Andrey Kurkov gives a fresh perspective on a people for whom resistance and solidarity have become a matter of survival. Our Daily War is a chronological record of the heterogeneous mix that comprises Ukrainian life and thought in the teeth of Russian aggression, from the constant stress of air raids, the deportation of citizens from the occupied regions and the whispers of governmental corruption to Christmas celebrations, crowdfunding and the recipe for a " trench candle" . Kurkov' s human' s-eye view on the war in Ukraine is by turns bitingly satirical, tragic, humorous and heartfelt. It is also, in the manner of Pepys, an invaluable insight into the history, politics and culture of Ukraine. Our Daily War is the ideal primer for anyone who would like to know what life is like in that country today.
Grey Bees by ISBN: 9780857059345Date: 2022Little Starhorodivka, a village of three streets, lies in Ukraine's Grey Zone, the no-man's-land between loyalist and separatist forces. Thanks to the lukewarm war of sporadic violence and constant propaganda that has been dragging on for years, only two residents remain: retired safety inspector turned beekeeper Sergey Sergeyich and Pashka, a rival from his schooldays. With little food and no electricity, under constant threat of bombardment, Sergeyich's one remaining pleasure is his bees. As spring approaches, he knows he must take them far from the Grey Zone so they can collect their pollen in peace. This simple mission on their behalf introduces him to combatants and civilians on both sides of the battle lines: loyalists, separatists, Russian occupiers and Crimean Tatars. Wherever he goes, Sergeyich's childlike simplicity and strong moral compass disarm everyone he meets. But could these qualities be manipulated to serve an unworthy cause, spelling disaster for him, his bees and his country?
Adam Mickiewicz: The Life of a Romantic by ISBN: 9780801444715Date: 2008-10-15Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855), Poland's national poet, was one of the extraordinary personalities of the age. In chronicling the events of his life-his travels, numerous loves, a troubled marriage, years spent as a member of a heterodox religious sect, and friendships with such luminaries of the time as Aleksandr Pushkin, James Fenimore Cooper, George Sand, Giuseppe Mazzini, Margaret Fuller, and Aleksandr Herzen-Roman Koropeckyj draws a portrait of the Polish poet as a quintessential European Romantic. Spanning five decades of one of the most turbulent periods in modern European history, Mickiewicz's life and works at once reflected and articulated the cultural and political upheavals marking post-Napoleonic Europe. After a poetic debut in his native Lithuania that transformed the face of Polish literature, he spent five years of exile in Russia for engaging in Polish "patriotic" activity. Subsequently, his grand tour of Europe was interrupted by his country's 1830 uprising against Russia; his failure to take part in it would haunt him for the rest of his life. For the next twenty years Mickiewicz shared the fate of other Polish émigrés in the West. It was here that he wrote Forefathers' Eve, part 3 (1832) and Pan Tadeusz (1834), arguably the two most influential works of modern Polish literature. His reputation as his country's most prominent poet secured him a position teaching Latin literature at the Academy of Lausanne and then the first chair of Slavic Literature at the Collége de France. In 1848 he organized a Polish legion in Italy and upon his return to Paris founded a radical French-language newspaper. His final days were devoted to forming a Polish legion in Istanbul. This richly illustrated biography-the first scholarly biography of the poet to be published in English since 1911-draws extensively on diaries, memoirs, correspondence, and the poet's literary texts to make sense of a life as sublime as it was tragic. It concludes with a description of the solemn transfer of Mickiewicz's remains in 1890 from Paris to Cracow, where he was interred in the Royal Cathedral alongside Poland's kings and military heroes.
