Oksana Stefanivna Zabuzhko ( uk, Окса́на Стефа́нівна Забу́жко) is a

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

novelist, poet, and essayist. Her works have been translated into several languages. She has been accused of relativising the Volhynian Massacre

Life

Born 19 September 1960 in

Lutsk Lutsk ( uk, Луцьк, translit=Lutsk}, ; pl, Łuck ; yi, לוצק, Lutzk) is a city on the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Volyn Oblast (province) and the administrative center of the surrounding Luts ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. The writer's father, Stefan (Stepan) Ivanovych Zabuzhko (1926-1983) was a teacher,

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

, and translator, the first to translate the stories of the Czech composer and writer

Ilja Hurník Ilja Hurník (25 November 1922 – 7 September 2013) was a Czech composer and essayist. Biography Hurnik was born in Poruba, now part of Ostrava. He entered the Prague Conservatory, then went on to the Prague Academy of Arts, where he ...

into Ukrainian, and was repressed during Stalin's regime. According to Zabuzhko, she received her philological education at home. The repressions against the Ukrainian intelligentsia that began in September 1965 forced the family to leave Lutsk, and since 1968 she has lived in Kyiv. Zabuzhko studied philosophy at the

Kyiv University Kyiv University or Shevchenko University or officially the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv ( uk, Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка), colloquially known as KNU ...

, where she also completed her

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

in 1987. In 1992, she taught at

Penn State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, Penn State became ...

as a visiting writer. Zabuzhko won a Fulbright scholarship in 1994 and taught

Ukrainian literature Ukrainian literature is literature written in the Ukrainian language. Ukrainian literature mostly developed under foreign domination over Ukrainian territories, foreign rule by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Poland, the Russian Empire, t ...

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

. To date, Zabuzhko works at the

Hryhori Skovoroda Hryhorii Skovoroda, also Gregory Skovoroda or Grigory Skovoroda ( la, Gregorius Scovoroda; uk, Григорій Савич Сковорода, ''Hryhorii Savych Skovoroda''; russian: Григо́рий Са́ввич Сковорода́, ...

Institute of Philosophy of the

National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU; uk, Національна академія наук України, ''Natsional’na akademiya nauk Ukrayiny'', abbr: NAN Ukraine) is a self-governing state-funded organization in Ukraine th ...

. On 8 March 2022 Zabuzhko became the first person who is neither an

EU citizen European Union citizenship is afforded to all citizens of member states of the European Union (EU). It was formally created with the adoption of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, at the same time as the creation of the EU. EU citizenship is additio ...

nor an official to address a plenary session of the

European parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

.‘A completely different language’: how Ukrainian writers and artists are responding to the war

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

(8 April 2022)

Literary work

According to Uilleam Blacker, Oksana Zabuzhko's work has two main preoccupations: national identity and gender. Zabuzhko's first novel, '' Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex'', published in 1996, was met with great controversy both by the critics and by the readers. With its publication, the Ukrainian readership and the intellectual community faced innovative, provocative and complex feminist writing. According to a poll in 2006, this novel was recognized as "the book that most influenced Ukrainian society during the 15 years of independence". Today it is the most widely translated work of new Ukrainian prose in the world (15 languages), included in many reading lists and ratings of modern Eastern European classics. Oksana Zabuzhko's most famous book in the non-fiction genre is ''Notre Dame d'Ukraine: A Ukrainian Woman in the Conflict of Mythologies'' (2007). As a trained philosopher and cultural critic, Zabuzhko publishes essays and non-fiction works. Zabuzhko also turns to the Ukrainian history. Her most recent novel, ''

The Museum of Abandoned Secrets ''The Museum of Abandoned Secrets'' (Ukrainian: ''Музей покинутих секретів'') is a 2009 novel written by Oksana Zabuzhko. The novel, more than 800 pages long, spans six decades of contemporary Ukrainian history. Critics ha ...

'' (2009), deals with three different epochs (

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, 1970s, and early 2000s), and, in particular, the topic of

Ukrainian Insurgent Army The Ukrainian Insurgent Army ( uk, Українська повстанська армія, УПА, translit=Ukrayins'ka povstans'ka armiia, abbreviated UPA) was a Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary and later partisan formation. During World ...

, active in Ukraine in the 1940s and 1950s, and either demonized or silenced by the

Soviet historiography Soviet historiography is the methodology of history studies by historians in the Soviet Union (USSR). In the USSR, the study of history was marked by restrictions imposed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Soviet historiography i ...

. Oksana Zabuzhko belongs to the generation that

Tamara Hundorova Tamara Ivanivna Hundorova (Ukrainian: Гундорова Тамара Іванівна; born 17 July 1955, Klimivka, Karlivka Raion, Poltava Oblast) is a Ukrainian literary critic, culturologist and writer. She is a professor and head of the T ...

, a literary scholar, calls «post-Chornobyl».Tamara Hundorova. Pisliachornobyl's'ka biblioteka. Ukrains'kyi literaturnyi postmodern. Kyiv: Krytyka, 2005. The

Chernobyl catastrophe The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 nuclear reactor, reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainia ...

(1986), according to Hundorova, is not only one of the biggest calamities of the modern times, but also a «symbolic event that projects post-apocalyptical text ��into the post-atomic era». Most importantly, Chernobyl also marks the end of the Soviet Union, at least the end of any legitimacy of its ideology, and the beginning of the new Ukrainian society and new Ukrainian literature, free from socialist realism or consciously dismantling its legacy. One important feature of Oksana Zabuzhko's writing is that it is «turned outward» to the world, to be accessible to the Western reader. In 1995-2010 she was the vice-president of the Ukrainian branch of the PEN Club (while the president was Yevhen Sverstyuk). In the fall of 2004, she did much to draw international attention to Ukraine's presidential election. On the eve of the Orange Maidan, she published an article in the WSJ by ''Ukrainian Solidarity.'' In June 2018, she supported an open letter from cultural figures, politicians and human rights activists calling on world leaders to speak in defense of Ukrainian director

Oleg Sentsov Oleg (russian: Олег), Oleh ( uk, Олег), or Aleh ( be, Алег) is an East Slavic given name. The name is very common in Russia, Ukraine and Belаrus. It derives from the Old Norse ''Helgi'' ( Helge), meaning "holy", "sacred", or "blesse ...

, a prisoner in Russia, and other political prisoners.

Awards

Angelus Award The Angelus Central European Literature Award also known as Angelus Award (Polish: ''Nagroda Literacka Europy Środkowej Angelus'') is a Polish international literary award established in 2006 and presented by the city of Wrocław, Lower Silesia. ...

(2013) *

Antonovych prize The Antonovych Prize is an annual award of US$10,000 given by the Omelian and Tetiana Antonovych Foundation since 1981 for literary works written in Ukrainian and for research in Ukrainian studies. Institutions, individuals, and members of the pr ...

(2009) *

Shevchenko National Prize Shevchenko National Prize ( uk, Націона́льна пре́мія Украї́ни і́мені Тараса́ Шевче́нка; also ''Shevchenko Award'') is the highest state prize of Ukraine for works of culture and arts awarded since ...

(2019) *

Women in Arts Award The Women in Arts Award is an award established in 2019 by UN Women Ukraine and the Ukrainian Institute, and presented as part of HeForShe Ukraine's annual arts week in March. Only women are nominated for the award; its purpose is to bring atte ...

(2020)

Major works and style

Oksana Zabuzhko's first novel, '' Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex'', is one of the key texts in post-Soviet Ukrainian literature. It caused great controversy upon its publication, because the narrator expresses dissatisfaction with the established order of relationships between sexes, where a woman is subject to

oppression Oppression is malicious or unjust treatment or exercise of power, often under the guise of governmental authority or cultural opprobrium. Oppression may be overt or covert, depending on how it is practiced. Oppression refers to discrimination w ...

, social and sexual, both by the traditional patriarchy, as a gendered subject, as well as a subject of

totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and reg ...

. The novel was analyzed from the point of view of

postcolonial theory Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is ...

. It also inspired a number of comparative studies, where Zabuzhko's novel was compared to the writings of

Jamaica Kincaid Jamaica Kincaid (; born May 25, 1949) is an Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, gardener, and gardening writer. She was born in St. John's, Antigua (part of the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda). She lives in North Bennington, Vermo ...

Assia Djebar Fatima-Zohra Imalayen (30 June 1936 – 6 February 2015), known by her pen name Assia Djebar ( ar, آسيا جبار), was an Algerian novelist, translator and filmmaker. Most of her works deal with obstacles faced by women, and she is noted fo ...

Angela Carter Angela Olive Pearce (formerly Carter, Stalker; 7 May 1940 – 16 February 1992), who published under the name Angela Carter, was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picar ...

Nicole Brossard Nicole Brossard (born November 27, 1943) is a leading French-Canadian formalist poet and novelist. Her work is known for exploration of feminist themes and for challenging masculine-oriented language and points of view in French literature. Sh ...

, and others. The novel was also studied on account of its prominent style, with the «poetic» voice and the «intellectual» voice intermingling and creating an intricate structure. The novel engages some elements of ''

écriture féminine ''Écriture féminine,'' or "women's writing", is a term coined by French feminist and literary theorist Hélène Cixous in her 1975 essay "The Laugh of the Medusa". Cixous aimed to establish a genre of literary writing that deviates from tradi ...

'', notably, writing (from) the body. Oksana Zabuzhko's second novel, '' Museum of Abandoned Secrets'', deals with Ukraine's resistance and opposition to the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

colonial regime in the 20th century. The novel presents the reality of the relations between the countries that within the structure of the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

were seen by the West only in the context of the myth of the «friendships of nations», the myth that Putin's Russia would still like to perpetuate. Oksana Zabuzhko's most famous non-fiction book is '' Notre Dame d’Ukraine''. It focuses on the Ukrainian writer of the fin-de-siècle era,

Lesya Ukrayinka Lesya Ukrainka ( uk, Леся Українка ; born Larysa Petrivna Kosach, uk, Лариса Петрівна Косач; – ) was one of Ukrainian literature's foremost writers, best known for her poems and plays. She was also an active ...

(1871-1913), but is also a study of the Ukrainian intelligentsia of that time and their cultural values. More specifically, in this groundbreaking volume Zabuzhko shows Ukraine's European legacy in regard to the tradition of chivalry and the ways in which it shaped the Ukrainian literature and mentality. Her book ''Let My People Go'' won the Korrespondent magazine Best Ukrainian documentary book award in June 2006, ''

'' — Best Ukrainian Book — 2010.Корреспондент назвав переможців конкурсу Краща українська книга-2010
/ref>

Selected bibliography

Poetry

* May Frost (1985) ''Травневий іній'' * The Conductor of the Last Candle (1990) ''Диригент останньої свічки'' * Hitchhiking (1994) ''Автостоп'' * Second Attempt (2005) ''Друга спроба''

Prose

* Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex (1996) ''Польові дослідження з українського сексу'' * Sister, Sister (2003) ''Сестро, сестро'' * The Museum of Abandoned Secrets (2009) ''Музей покинутих секретів''

Non-fiction

* Philosophy of the Ukrainian Idea and the European Context: Franko Period (1992) ''Філософія української ідеї та європейський контекст: Франківський період'' * Shevchenko's Myth of Ukraine: An Attempt at a Philosophical Analysis (1996) ''Шевченків міф України: Спроба філософського аналізу'' * The Fortinbras Chronicles (1999) ''Хроніки від Фортінбраса'' * Let my People Go: 15 Texts About Ukrainian Revolution (2005) ''Let my people go. 15 текстів про українську революцію'' * Notre Dame d'Ukraine: Ukrayinka in the Conflict of Mythologies (2007) ''Notre Dame d’Ukraine: Українка в конфлікті міфологій'' * From the map of books and people (2012) ''З мапи книг і людей'' * Ukrainian Palimpsest. Conversations of Oksana Zabuzhko and Iza Chruslinska. ""Ukraiński palimpsest". Rozmowy Oksany Zabużko z Izą Chruślińską" 2013. * And again I get into the tank... Selected texts 2012—2016: articles, essays, interviews, memoirs (2016) ''І знов я влізаю в танк…. Вибрані тексти 2012—2016: статті, есе, інтерв'ю, спогади'' * Wormwood Planet (2020) ''Планета Полин''

Zabuzhko's texts translated in English

* O. Zabuzhko ''Girls'', translated by Askold Melnyczuk. * O. Zabuzhko ''I, Milena'' in: The Third Shore: Women's Fiction from East Central Europe (Writings from an Unbound Europe) (Paperback) by Agata Schwartz, Luise von Flotow. Also found in: Two Lands, New Visions: Stories from Canada and Ukraine by Janice Kulyk Keefer (Editor), Solomea Pavlychko (Editor). * O. Zabuzhko ''Fieldwork In Ukrainian Sex'', translated by Halyna Hryn. Las Vegas: AmazonCrossing, 2011 * A Kingdom of Fallen Statues. Poems and Essays by Oksana Zabuzhko Transl. by Marco Carynnyk, Askold Melnyczuk, Michael M.Naydan, Wanda Phipps, Lisa Sapinkopf, Douglas Burnet Smith, and Virlana Tkacz. Toronto: Wellspring Ltd., 1996 * O. Zabuzhko ''

'', translated by Nina Shevchuk-Murray. Las Vegas: AmazonCrossing 2012
No guilty people in the world? Reading Russian literature after the Bucha massacre
-

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication i ...

, 22 April 2022

References

External links

Oksana Zabuzhko - official website

Oksana Zabuzhko's book Museum - official website

Oksana Zabuzko on Poetry International Web

Blog of Oksana Zabuzhko

"Girls" in English

Ukrainian Palimpsest in Polish (1st edition)

Zabuzhko's works published in AGNI
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zabuzhko, Oksana 1960 births Living people People from Lutsk People of the Revolution on Granite Harvard University staff University of Pittsburgh faculty Ukrainian women poets 20th-century Ukrainian women writers Ukrainian philosophers Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv alumni Ukrainian women non-fiction writers Ukrainian women philosophers 20th-century Ukrainian poets 21st-century Ukrainian poets Ukrainian essayists 20th-century essayists 21st-century essayists 21st-century Ukrainian women writers Fulbright alumni