Ukrainian Literary Modernism of the 1910s–mid-1930s. A Critical Reader, Volume 2

The Reader introduces Anglophone audiences to the original theoretical writings and poetry produced in Ukraine from the 1910s through the emergence of the totalitarian state under Stalin in the mid-1930s. It captures the vibrancy of a cultural moment when modernism and the avant-garde became the leading forms of artistic, literary, and intellectual expression. Far from being a peripheral phenomenon, Ukrainian modernism evolved in a dynamic dialogue with both European and Russian counterparts while maintaining its own national and ideological distinctiveness. The Reader demonstrates how Formalist theory and avant-garde literary practice shaped poetic creation and, in turn, how these aesthetic innovations engaged with broader projects of Soviet modernization and nation-building. By bringing together key critical and poetic works that reveal the tension between national aspirations and avant-garde currents in Ukrainian culture, the book redefines Ukrainian modernism as a movement uniting theoretical innovation, artistic experimentation, and political engagement. It invites readers to recognize how, forged in the crucible of the early Soviet decades, literature emerged not only as a reflection but also as a maker of modernity.