Faces of Displacement: The Writings of Volodymyr Vynnychenko

Mykola Soroka

oct 2012 · McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

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"Whom do our people read? Vynnychenko. Whom do people talk about if it concerns literature? Vynnychenko. Whom do they buy? Again, Vynnychenko." So wrote Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky about the young Volodymyr Vynnychenko. An innovative and provocative writer, Vynnychenko was also a charismatic revolutionary and politician who responded to the dramatic upheavals of the first half of the twentieth century by challenging old values and bringing forward new ideas about human relationships. Despite his inseparable association with Ukraine, what is often overlooked is the fact that Vynnychenko wrote the majority of his works outside his native land following his flight from Tsarist and Soviet tyranny. In this ground-breaking study, Mykola Soroka draws on contemporary theories of displacement to show how Vynnychenko's expatriate status determined his worldview, his choice of literary devices, and his attitudes toward his homeland and hostlands. Soroka considers concepts of identity to study the intertwined experiences of the writer - as an exile, émigré, expatriate, traveler, and nomad - and to demonstrate how these experiences invigorated his art and left a lasting impact on his work. The first book-length study in English on Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Faces of Displacement is an insightful examination of an exiled writer that sheds new light on the challenges faced by the displaced.

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Mykola Soroka is the development manager for the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta.