Description
Book SynopsisThis is the first comprehensive study of the language program of the prominent Ukrainian writer and ideologue Pantelejmon Kuliš (1819-1897) whose translations of the Bible and Shakespeare proved most innovative in the formation of literary and the national self-identification of Ukrainians. The author looks at Kuliš's translations from the perspective of cultural and ethnic studies, presenting literary Ukrainian as a process of negotiation among literary traditions, religions (rites), political movements, and personalities.
This book may be used in university courses on the history of Slavic languages and literatures, contemporary theories of nation-building and national identity as well as language contact and (historical) sociolinguistics. The discussion of language policy in the Russian Empire and Austria-Hungary can be included in regular university courses on Slavic civilizations, history of Central and Eastern Europe (Russia, Poland, and Ukraine).
Trade Review“
From the Bible to Shakespeare represents a truly innovative and fundamental study of an important contribution to the Ukrainian linguistic culture, made by the famous Ukrainian writer and cultural figure Pantelejmon Kuliš. . . . the volume also appears to be a very useful text for university studies. It provides a great deal of facts and theoretical concepts for reconstruction of the history of biblical studies on the Ukrainian terrain in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.” -- Sergii Golovashchenko, Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
Andrii Danylenko’s
From the Bible to Shakespeare: Pantelejmon Kuliš (1819-1897) and the Formation of Literary Ukrainian is a profound study that offers an insight into a complex process of the development of language, embracing the formation of the literary and the national. Kuliš
’s translations represent an intriguing study case not only for the exploration of linguistic synthesis, but also for investigation of identity fluidity that stems from openness towards linguistic and cultural dialogism. -- Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed, New Books Network, 23 February 2017 * New Books Network *
“This book could be rightly considered as a further step towards the realization of an ‘integral history of the new Ukrainian literary language’ which Danylenko is striving for. … Overall, the book can be read with the utmost curiosity and recommended to those scholars with a keen interest in the formation process of modern literary Ukrainian. Danylenko’s detailed analysis of the language used in the exemplified translation fragments by Kuliš and the comparison with the translations made by his, more or less famous, contemporaries, inserted in broader socio-historic and cultural-literary context, adds a fundamental milestone in the history of the Ukrainian language.” —Salvatore Del Gaudio, Richerche Slavistiche Vol. 1 (LXI)
-- Salvatore Del Gaudio * Richerche Slavistiche *
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: Writing a Linguistic Biography of a Ukrainian Maverick
- Part I: The Bible
- Chapter 1: Exploring Psalmody
- The Book of Psalms
- Alexandrine Verse or Trochaic Foot?
- Invoking Gavrila Deržavin
- Church Slavonicisms
- "Kulišisms"
- Xarkiv Chimes In
- The 1897 Poetic Crowning
- Chapter 2: The Makings of the Rusian Bible
- A Pentateuch Prolusion
- Gearing Up for New Challenges
- "Poison and Ruin for the Rusian People"
- "The Labor Pangs of a Unified Ukrainian Literary Language"
- Reception of the Translation
- The Sloboda Bulwark
- The Archangel Havrylo
- Who Else Bears a Grudge?
- The Creation of the New Biblical Style
- Means of Archaization
- Means of Vernacularization
- Chapter 3: Galicia "Writes Back"
- The West or the East?
- Fostering "Rusian Church Vernacular"
- Any Palliative Solution?
- Lost in Diacritics
- To "Secularize" or "Synthesize"?
- Chapter 4: Here Comes the Bible!
- The Holy Writ Doesn't Burn
- Tobit and Job
- At the Crossroads of Poetry and Prose
- Ivan Nečuj-Levyc´kyj Takes It Personally
- The Pranks of Ivan Franko
- Ivan Puljuj Makes His Riposte
- How Should It Sound?
- How to String Words?
- How to Choose Words?
- How to Spell Words?
- Ivan Nečuj-Levyc´kyj Is Shuffled Backstage
- Interpreting Hebrew Poetry
- The Book of Job
- Lamentations
- The Song of Songs
- The Versified Bible
- Summary
- Part II: Shakespeare
- Chapter 5: "Oh, Shakespeare, Our Father, Native to All Peoples"
- Ethics Avant la Lettre!
- Bringing Forth the "Ukrainian Shakespeare"
- The First (Over)Reaction
- The Language of the "Ukrainian Shakespeare"
- On the Threshold of a New Secular High Style
- Chapter 6: Expanding the Literary Canon of the "Ukrainian Shakespeare"
- The First Step Is the Hardest?
- "Huculia Did Not Appear; Rather Shakespeare Was Merely Hidden"
- Hamlet or Hamljet? That Is the Question
- Hamlet in Peasant Leather Shoes
- The Younger Generation Steps to the Fore
- "We Are All Peasants Today"
- One or Multiple Homesteads?
- Conclusion: Detours Offered But Never Taken
- Bibliography
- Indices
- Geographical and Personal Names
- Subjects and Titles of Literary Works and Translations
- Word-forms
