Philadelphia hosts literary bridge between Ukraine and U.S. (12/31/00)

Philadelphia hosts literary bridge between Ukraine and U.S.

PHILADELPHIA - The Philadelphia area audience was treated on Sunday, November 19, to an unprecedented evening of contemporary Ukrainian literature - "Literaturnyi Mist: Ukraina-Amerika" - which featured the two leading lights of contemporary, Ukrainian literature, Yuri Vynnychuk and Yuri Andrukhovych.

This well advertised event attracted an overflow audience of nearly 150, including those from neighboring states. The literary evening at the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Jenkintown, Pa., also included introductions of the two authors by Dr. Michael Naydan of Penn State University as well as a special appearance by professional actor Michael Bernosky of Boalsburg, Pa., who performed many of the two authors' pieces in English.

Dr. Naydan recently translated Mr. Vynnychuk's prose into English for the book "Windows of Time Frozen and Other Stories," which was just published by Klasyka Publishers in Lviv. And he has also translated Mr. Andrukhovych's novel "Perverzion," which is currently under consideration for publication by Northwestern University Press.

At the start of the evening, Dr. Jaroslaw Zalipsky welcomed all in attendance on behalf of the sponsoring organizations (the Ukrainian Federation of America and the Shevchenko Scientific Society, Philadelphia Branch) and then introduced Dr. Naydan.

In his introductory comments, Dr. Naydan described both writers as masters of prose, calling Mr. Vynnychuk "a master of black humor, of dialectal stylistics and of psychological narrative" and an extraordinary storyteller.

Mr. Vynnychuk's best works, in Dr. Naydan's opinion, are his stories and tales collected under the title "Spalakh" (The Flash, 1990) and his recent novel "Malva Landa" (the heroine's name), which appeared in the February 2000 issue of the Kyiv journal "Suchasnist." Mr. Vynnychuk has also collected a considerable amount of folkloric material for his popular recent books "Lehendy Lvova" (Legends of Lviv) and "Knaipy Lvova" (The Pubs of Lviv). Additionally, Mr. Vynnychuk is well known in the environs of Lviv as a cultural commentator newspaper Postup.

Dr. Naydan described Mr. Andrukhovych as the author of four books of poetry, a cycle of stones based on his service in the army, and three novels "Rekreatsii" (Recreations; translated by Marko Pavlyshyn for CIUS Press), "Moskoviada," and the post-modernist philosophical novel "Perverzion." He also is a prolific essayist and recently published a volume of essays titled "Dezorientatsiia v Mistsevosti" (Disorientation in Locality).

Dr. Naydan described Mr. Andrukhovych's writings as "carnivalesque" and "rife with verbal play and multi-leveled nuances." Dr. Naydan said he regards Mr. Andrukhovych as "the finest representative of post-modernism in Ukrainian literature."

Following the introductions of the authors, the evening began with Mr. Andrukhovych and Mr. Bernosky, whose ancestors are of Lemko extraction, reading three poems from Dr. Naydan's recent book, "The Complete Early Poetry Collections of Pavlo Tychyna" (Litopys Publishers). The bilingual line-by-line reading showed how the English translations resonated with the original Ukrainian texts of Mr. Tychyna's poetry.

Following the foray into classical modern Ukrainian poetry, Mr. Andrukhovych then read several of his own poems in Ukrainian, ranging from the lyrical love poem "The Museum of Antiquities" to the ode "To Barbara Langisz" - with a parodic, ironic twist at the end that seemed to surprise some in the audience.

Mr. Bernosky, a consummate actor with a long resumé of performances on stage and screen, read Dr. Naydan's translations of Mr. Andrukhovych's poems in English in a powerful reading style.

Mr. Andrukhovych followed with expressive readings of several passages from his novel "Perverzion," including the extraordinarily humorous and sometimes slightly off-color enumeration of the novel's hero Stas Perfetsky's 40 names and nicknames.

Mr. Bernosky continued the evening by "performing" several of the scenes from the novel in English. He exhibited the wide range of his acting ability, magnificently playing, in turn, the unforgettably comic Italian priest Antonio Delcampo, the novel's hero Stas Perfetsky trying to prod the muse to write a poem - with the inspiration never quite working out, and Rastaman Jamaican-Ukrainian kozak John Paul Oshchirko chanting to a reggae beat.

Mr. Bernosky ended his performance by becoming totally transformed into the demon Bakafu, who appears in "Perverzion" to the participants at the end of the Venice conference "The Post-Carnival Absurdity of the World: What is on the Horizon?" Mr. Bernosky's face was aflame as he boomed in the controlling voice of the demon that seemingly possessed him - to great comic effect.

The final part of the evening was a reading by master satirist Mr. Vynnychuk, who first read an excerpt from his grotesque parody "Hy-Hy-Hy" translated in the volume "From Three Worlds: New Writing from Ukraine" as "Max and Me"). His experience from the comedic performance group Ne Zhurys (Don't Worry) in the late 1980s showed through in the variety of male and female voices he portrayed - much to the delight of the audience. He concluded by reading a number of stories from his "Legends of Lviv" book in the same performance style.

Mr. Vynnychuk was a writer-in-residence (at Penn State University) for the month of October, while Mr. Andrukhovych is on a Fulbright scholarship and will be a writer-in-residence at Penn State University) through the spring of 2001.

A wine, cheese and dessert reception after the readings, provided an opportunity to meet both Yuris and both Michaels up close - and to purchase autographed copies of the various books by the authors. Later, both authors were interviewed by the Ukrainian Radio Hour of the Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center.

Ukrainian literature proved during the evening that it is rich indeed with two such fine representatives at the cutting edge of the literary imagination.

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