NEWS AND VIEWS: American farewell to a poet: Irvanets returns to Ukraine (06/04/06)

NEWS AND VIEWS

American farewell to a poet: Irvanets returns to Ukraine

by Leonid Rudnytzky

In May of this year, Oleksandr Irvanets bid farewell to Philadelphia and the United States, and return to his native Ukraine. His sojourn in the states was made possible by a Fulbright grant, which he received to do research on the contemporary theater.

A poet, dramatist and novelist, Mr. Irvanets belongs to the so-called "Visimdesiatnyky" (the 80ers) generation of Ukrainian writers. He first gained fame as a member of the famous Bu-Ba-Bu literary group, a triad of young poets, that also included, Yuri Andrukhovych and Viktor Neborak.

Established in 1985, this literary grouping quickly gained great fame and immense popularity all over Ukraine through satirical poetic recitations. Their theatrical performances in the 1990s evoke a feeling of nostalgia still today, especially among the younger generations of Ukrainian, for whom the three poets are akin to what the Beatles were for the young people of yesterday.

Mr. Irvanets' popularity in Ukraine received a new impetus when he was asked to serve as news commentator for the famous Kyiv-based TV Channel 5 during the time of the Orange Revolution. His frequent commentaries and reports, delivered in satiric verse, made him a sui generis celebrity as a poet of the airwaves. Parenthetically, it should be added, that some of these short poems have appeared in a separate collection titled "Preambles and Texts" (2005).

However, even prior to this brief television career, Mr. Irvanets had established himself as a serious man of letters through his plays and his prose. His dramas have been staged not only in Ukraine, but also in Poland, Germany and Luxembourg, and one of his short two-act plays titled, "A Little Play about Betrayal, for One Actress" (1992) has been translated into English and published in Ukrainian Literature: A Journal of Translations ( Vol. 1, 2004).

More recently, the publication of his selected plays and poetry in a collection titled "Luskunchyk - 2004" (The Nutcracker - 2004), published in 2005, has cemented his place in the canon of contemporary Ukrainian literature. "The Nutcracker" premiered on May 19 in Kyiv at the Molodyi Theater (Young Theater).

While in the United States, Mr. Irvanets not only diligently researched his topic of interest, but also lectured on contemporary Ukrainian theater and culture at La Salle University, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and the University of Toronto. He has also been active in the Ukrainian intellectual community on the East Coast, holding poetry readings and talks at the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Philadelphia and New York, the St. Sophia Religious Association of Ukrainian Catholics - U.S.A., and other Ukrainian institutions.

Mr. Irvanets' novel, "Rivne/Rovno," is without doubt his most important prose work. Its locus is the author's native city of Rivne, located in western Ukraine; its hero is a young writer named Shloima Etsirvan (a scrambled version of the author's surname). Thus, the novel is definitely an autobiographical work. It contains explicit references to several persons living today; it provides realistic depictions of a topographical nature and current events. In short, it is informed by a contemporary Zeitgeist. However, Mr. Irvanets' realism is mitigated and augmented by the author's rampant imagination, which transports the work into the realm of surrealism placing it into the anti-utopian genre.

The central motif of the novel, i.e., the wall that divides the city into east and west, into communist and democratic sectors, harkens back to the Berlin Wall, the fall of which in 1989 precipitated the disintegration of the Soviet empire. The basic philosophical thesis underlying the work is the author's conviction that, while the Soviet Union is dead, it is not buried, for the Soviet mentality among the populace is still very much alive. The specter of Stalinism still haunts today's Ukraine.

The novel "Rivne/Rovno" is a tale well told. The speculative bend of Irvanets the thinker does not interfere with the narrative flair of Irvanets the story teller. The reader is inexorably drawn into Shloima Etsirvan's world; one cannot help but be fascinated by the protagonist's peripatetic adventures, his sinister trials and tribulations, his gentle triumphs and his nostalgic love affair.

In Ukraine, "Rivne/Rovno" will soon appear in a second edition. A Polish translation of the novel is scheduled to be published by the end of this year, and a German translation will follow suit. It is hoped that the work will find a competent English-language translator as well. It would be a real pity, if one of the best contemporary Ukrainian prose works were to remain out of reach for the English reader.

Upon his return to Ukraine, Mr. Irvanets was to lecture briefly at the National University of Ostroh Academy and then fly to Wiesbaden, Germany, to participate in the famous Biennale, a theatrical festival featuring the newest European plays. His future plans include writing a work in which he hopes to present his American experience in an artistic form.

Dr. Leonid Rudnytzky is president of the World Council of the Shevchenko Scientific Society, a full member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, president of the St. Sophia Religious Association of Ukrainian Catholics - U.S.A., professor of Central and Eastern European studies at La Salle University (Philadelphia) and adjunct professor of Ukrainian at the University of Pennsylvania.

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