The Poet as Myth Maker: Study of Symbolic Meaning in Taras Shevchenko (Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute Monograph) [Hardcover]

If you've yearned for Shevchenko translations that do him justice, you've come to the right place! Even if you're not interested in a scholarly study of Shevchenko's works, this monograph is worth its weight in gold if not for anything else then simply for its excellent Shevchenko translations by Dr. Grabowicz.

Author George G. Grabowicz, Ph.D., uses throughout this monograph the spelling 'Sevcenko' to refer to Taras Shevchenko. George G. Grabowicz is the pseudonym/nom de plume of Dmytro Cyzevs'kyj, Professor of Ukrainian Literature in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University.

Taras Sevcenko (1814-1861) has been variously described as: greatest poet of Ukraine, great literary genius, national prophet, revolutionary democrat, national bard of Ukraine, the enthusiast, and the spiritual father of the reborn Ukrainian nation. Although modern Ukrainian literature finds Sevcenko to be a central figure, and despite enormous attention devoted to him, his role in Ukrainian history, his work, and the Ukrainian national renascence of the 19th century--nevertheless, the symbolic nature of his poetry--the core of the Sevcenko phenomenon--is scarcely analyzed systematically. The Poet as Mythmaker not only changes that, but also performs the task magisterially. As an added bonus, readers are treated to many excellent translations of Sevcenko's poetry (unless otherwise noted) by Professor Grabowicz.

In many societies, it's not unusual for the phenomenon of the writer to be a culture hero; however, as Dr. Grabowicz explains, there is probably nobody who occupies that 'office' with so fervent a consensus by his countrymen and so firmly as does Sevcenko. In fact, even in the context of Slavic Romanticism, where he is often grouped with such acknowledged bards as Puskin and Mickiewicz, he stands preeminent in this respect. Today, it's commonplace knowledge that Sevcenko molded not only Ukrainian literature, but also Ukrainian political and cultural life, and the national renascence of the nineteenth century.

Professor Grabowicz further expounds that the historical phenomenon that is Sevcenko is predicated, too, on the cultural readiness of his audience as well as his ability to resonate with its collective emotions, experience, and expectations. Therefore, it's not merely his modal and formal recourse to oral and folk poetry, or his peasant origins that lend credence and content to the notion of his narodnist' (national character).

This monograph argues that the model and underlying code of Sevcenko's poetic universe is myth. It's by examining the paradigms and structures of Sevcenko's mythical thought that we can "find answers to various crucial and heretofore intractable questions, such as those concerning the relation of his Ukrainian poetry to his Russian prose, his sense of a transcendant (sic) 'curse' and 'guilt' in the Ukrainian past and present, the interrelation of his revolutionist fervor with his apparent providentialism, or the tension between the nativism and the universalism of his poetry. Moreover, it is through the structures of his mythical thought that we can understand Sevcenko's 'prophecy,' in effect, his millenarian vision. In this framework, too, the author focuses on the religious tenor of Sevcenko's poetry, in which the poet is both expiator and carrier of the Word, and finally, on the reception--indeed the cult--of Sevcenko among generations of Ukrainians."

Author George G. Grabowicz, Ph.D., was (at the time of publication of this monograph) Associate Professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University. A graduate of Yale University, Professor Grabowicz received an M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard, where he was also Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows. Professor Grabowicz has written on literature theory and on Polish and Ukrainian literature. He translated from the German and wrote a critical introduction to Roman Ingarden's The Literary Work of Art (1973) and he is the author of Toward a History of Ukrainian Literature (1981).

The late Dr. Wiktor Weintraub (1908-1988, Alfred Jurzykowski Professor Emeritus of Polish Language and Literature at Harvard), on the front inside flap of the dust jacket, comments that Professor George Grabowicz's monograph is a major and exciting reassessment of the great Ukrainian poet since not only does it present Sevcenko as a more complex, far richer, and more interesting personality than the one traditionally depicted, but also because it does so convincingly.

Published in 1982 by Harvard University Press and part of the Harvard Series in Ukrainian Studies Monograph Series, The Poet as Mythmaker is distributed by Harvard University Press for the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI). The dust jacket illustration is a self-portrait by Sevcenko, 1858. The jacket design is by Jennie Bush, Designworks. Publication of this book was made possible by a grant from the Ukrainian Studies Fund-Publications.

The Poet as Mythmaker is a 170-page monograph comprised of a four-page Preface, five chapters, and a five-page index. Following the index are two descriptive sections: the first is Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, listing books in the Monograph Series, Sources and Document Series, and Occasional Papers; the second is Harvard Series in Ukrainian Studies, with seven listings. The contents lists the chapters as follows: Chapter 1: Introduction: Sevcenko's Duality; Chapter 2: History and Metahistory; Chapter 3: The Myth: Structures and Paradigmatic Relations, "Unfortunate Lovers," The Family, Communitas and Structure, Communitas and Structure as a Universal Model, and Cossackdom Between Communitas and Structure; Chapter 4: The Millenarian Vision; and Chapter 5: Conclusion: Sevcenko's Mythopoesis.

Chapter One deals with Sevcenko's duality and briefly touches on the still unanswered and basic questions of Sevcenko as a symbolic writer. Chapter Two examines the symbolic and actual structures of his poetry, namely Sevcenko's 'historical theme,' as it serves as a transition to the analysis of his mythical thought. Chapter Three is divided into five major sections, and is the heart of this study. Chapter Four deals with the conflicts and oppositions subtended by his myth. Chapter Five, the final one, recapitulates the argument of Sevcenko's mythopoesis and touches on some of its cultural ramifications.

As Professor Grabowicz concludes in chapter five, mythical structures animate each of its major genres or modes--the narrative, the lyrical, and the 'political.' "In a word, myth constitutes a basic code of his poetry. The mythical code, however, appears only in the poetry--in contrast to the other basic code of Sevcenko's creative work, that is, the psychological, or concretely, the symbolically autobiographical, which manifests itself in all the major forms of his self-expression, in his poetry, prose, and painting too."

Dr. Grabowicz acknowledges a singular debt to his wife, Oksana Grabowicz, for introducing him to some key analytical concepts and for her invaluable advice in formulating the applicability of those concepts to this study. He states that this book could hardly have been written without her insights and help, and her consistently rigorous criticism. Also acknowledged and thanked for their valuable comments on a late draft of the manuscript are Omeljan Pritsak, Wiktor Weintraub, and John-Paul Himka.

Five stars plus for a magisterial scholarly study sure to add a dimension of understanding of Taras Sevcenko, which until now was very much needed.

Addendum: Readers, as a supplement to this monograph, you're invited to visit my review of Taras Shevchenko, A Life (0802034500); on the product detail page, I've posted 57 images pertaining to Shevchenko. Additionally, you're invited to visit each of my reviews--most of them have photos that I took in Ukraine (over 600)--you'll learn lots about Ukraine and Ukrainians. The image gallery shows smaller photos, which are out of sequence. The preferable way is to see each review through my profile page since photos that are germane to that particular book/VHS/DVD are posted there with notes and are in sequential order.

To visit my reviews: click on my pseudonym, Mandrivnyk, to get to my profile page; click on the tab called review; scroll to the bottom of the section, and click on see all reviews; click on each title, and on the left-hand side, click on see all images. The thumbnail images at the top of the page show whether photos have notes; roll your mouse over the image to find notes posted.

Also, you're invited to visit my Listmania lists, which have materials sorted by subject matter.