Shevchenko Society lecture focuses on Chornobyl in literature (05/14/06)

THE 20th ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHORNOBYL NUCLEAR DISASTER

Shevchenko Society lecture focuses on Chornobyl in literature

NEW YORK - As part of its program commemorating the Chornobyl disaster of 1986, the Shevchenko Scientific Society (NTSh) on April 29 presented two lectures: one by the society's president, Dr. Larissa Zaleska Onyshkevych, titled "The Chornobyl Disaster as Reflected in Ukrainian Literature," with special emphasis on Vasyl Barka's "The Wormwood Star"; the other, by Tamara Hundorova of Kyiv, a corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NANU) and head of the Section on Literary Theory at the Institute of Literature of NANU. The program was chaired by Prof. Vasyl Makhno.

Dr. Onyshkevych, who has published many articles on the subject of Chornobyl in poetry and prose, first provided a short commentary on some well-known works in the two genres, stressing their common elements.

The main focus of her lecture was the genre of drama, which, in her opinion, usually serves as a mirror of a society's concerns. There are two dramatic works about the Chornobyl disaster. Barka's dramatic poem "The Wormwood Star" ("Zirka Polyn") written in New Jersey, and Viktor Lysiuk's "Wormwood" ("Polyn"), written in Kyiv. The first is in the style of an epic lament, or threnody, while the latter is subtitled "A Rhapsody," said the lecturer.

Similarly to writers in other genres, both of them have incorporated certain elements from the Apocalypse or Revelation of St. John the Divine, which mentions the wormwood star (wormwood in Ukrainian is "polyn," which is a synonym for the "chornobyl" plant). According to Dr. Onyshkevych, both dramatic poems employ apocalyptic demonic archetypes, discussions of the need for penance, sacrifice, redemption and a promise of salvation. While Barka's work does not have any expressions of contrition, Lysiuk's dramatic poem does, and it also hints at periods of cyclical rebirth, as well as hope for the future.

What is very significant is the fact that none of the works on Chornobyl in any of the genres ever calls for revenge on the guilty parties who caused the disaster, concluded Dr. Onyshkevych.

Dr. Hundorova is the author of a 2005 book "The Chornobyl Library: Ukrainian Literary Post-modernism" (in Ukrainian). Her focus was the post-Chornobyl situation in Ukrainian literature, which was changed by that tragedy. In Dr. Hundorova's opinion, the Chornobyl disaster created a boundary between Soviet literature and the literature of the modern era. After that tragedy, any type of pathos would seem inopportune, concluded the lecturer.

The NTSh library held an exhibit on April 24-May 7 of selected publications dealing with the technical aspects of the Chornobyl disaster, as well as works of Ukrainian literature reflecting that event.

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