Modernism in Kyiv

by Makaryk, Irena

• ISBN13: 9781442640986
• ISBN10: 1442640987
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-05-10
• Publisher: Univ of Toronto Pr

Summary

The study of modernism has been largely focused on Western cultural centres such as Paris, Vienna, London, and New York. Extravagantly illustrated with over 300 photos and reproductions, Modernism in Kyiv demonstrates that the Ukrainian capital was a major centre of performing and visual arts as well as literary and cultural activity. While arguing that Kyiv's modernist impulse is most prominently displayed in the experimental work of Les Kurbas, one of the masters of the early Soviet stage, the contributors also examine the history of the city and the artistic production of diverse groups including Ukrainians, Russians, Jews, and Poles.Until now a silent presence in Western accounts of the cultural topography of modernism, multicultural Kyiv is here restored to its historical, intellectual, and artistic complexity. Excerpts taken from the works of artists, writers, and critics as well as the numerous illustrations help give life to the exciting creativity of this period. The first book-length examination of this subject, Modernism in Kyiv is a breakthrough accomplishment that will become a standard volume in the field.

Author Biography

Michael Naydan, Woskob Family Professor of Ukrainian Studies, The Pennsylvania State University
Irena R. Makaryk is a professor in the Department of English at the University of Ottawa.
Vrilana Tkacz is the artistic director of the Yara Arts Group in New York.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Permissions	p. xi
List of Illustrations	p. xiii
A Note on Transliteration	p. xxiii
Introduction: Reconnecting Modernisms	p. 3
Kyiv: 'Special and Bewildering'	p. 13
Foreword to Victor Auburtin, Art Is Dying (excerpt)	p. 15
Modernism in Kyiv: Jubilant Experimentation	p. 16
'How beautiful Kyiv is' (diary excerpt)	p. 25
'A Theatrical Mecca': The Stages of Kyiv in 1907	p. 26
'Dawn'	p. 51
'Special and Bewildering': A Portrait of Late-Imperial and Early Soviet Kyiv	p. 52
Legend Sweet Michael and the Golden Gates	p. 97
Three Novels, Three Cities	p. 98
On Film	p. 138
Film in Kyiv, 1910-1916	p. 139
Kyiv the Epicentre	p. 167
On Rhythm (diary excerpt)	p. 169
In the Epicentre of Abstraction: Kyiv during the Time of Kurbas	p. 170
'To the Isles Electric!'(excerpt)	p. 196
The Yiddish Kultur-Lige	p. 197
'You Tell Me'	p. 218
Politics and the Ukrainian Avant-garde	p. 219
On Art (diary excerpt)	p. 242
Kyiv's Multicultural Theatrical Life, 1917-1926	p. 243
'Fire and Motion'	p. 275
'In the Orchestra of the Cosmos' (excerpt)	p. 277
Towards a New Vision of Theatre: Les Kurbas's Work at the Young Theatre in Kyiv	p. 278
On Movement (excerpt)	p. 310
The Choreographic Avant-garde in Kyiv, 1916-1921: Bronislava Nijinska and Her École de Mouvement	p. 311
'The Highest Power'	p. 321
Kyiv, the 1920s, and Modernism in Music	p. 322
'Lull' (excerpt)	p. 342
Music in the Theatre of Les Kurbas	p. 343
The Invisible Made Visible	p. 359
On the Theatre (notebook excerpt)	p. 361
Les Kurbas's Early Work at the Berezil: From Bodies in Motion to Performing the Invisible	p. 362
'Why worship the new?'	p. 386
Abstraction and Ukrainian Futurist Literature	p. 387
In sight of the sun (autobiography excerpt)	p. 407
The Graphic Arts: From Page Design to Theatre	p. 408
'Rhythm'	p. 442
Dissecting Time/Space: The Scottish Play and the New Technology of Film	p. 443
'We'll not die in Paris' (excerpt)	p. 478
On the World Stage: The Berezil in Paris and New York	p. 479
Elegies: Reflections on the Future Past	p. 515
'The End of Ukrainian Syllabotonic Verse'	p. 517
Vsevolod Meyerhold and Les Kurbas	p. 519
'Funeral Oration over the Athenian Dead' (excerpt)	p. 537
Les Kurbas and the Spiritual Foundations of the Ukrainian Avant-garde	p. 538
'Premonition' (excerpt)	p. 567
Appendices
Production List	p. 569
Kyiv, Historical Timeline	p. 583
Contributors	p. 589
Index	p. 593
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