Chicago literary evening honors writer, political leader Ivan Bahriany (08/17/03)

Chicago literary evening honors writer, political leader Ivan Bahriany

CHICAGO - The Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art and the Ukrainian Language Society of Chicago sponsored a literary evening on June 28 honoring Ukrainian poet and writer Ivan Bahriany. The evening featured speeches and presentations about the life and work of Mr. Bahriany, as well as an exhibit of his publications.

Ivan Bahriany, a journalist and political leader as well as poet and writer, was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1963. He is best known for his outstanding and popular work "Tyhrolovy," which was first published in Lviv, Ukraine, in 1944 and received the first prize in literature that year. In 1955 it appeared in English translation as "The Hunters and the Hunted" and was published in the United States, Canada and England. From the English version it was translated into German, Dutch and Danish, and appeared in several editions. At one point Hollywood was interested in making a film based on this novel. Even though "The Hunters and the Hunted" is his best-known work, his novel "Sad Hetsymanskyi" ("Gethsemane Garden") is considered to be his masterpiece. It was also translated and appeared in French.

Bahriany made his mark in Ukraine as a poet when his first collection of poetry appeared in 1927, followed by others in 1929, 1930 and 1932. His work was harshly criticized by Soviet regime critics as being "nationalistic," and for that he was imprisoned and sent to a concentration camp in the Far East, known as "Zelenyi Klyn." He escaped and eventually returned home, only to be rearrested and tortured. His novels draw on his experiences as an exile in the Far East and his imprisonment and torture in an NKVD prison in Kharkiv for political prisoners.

Bahriany is well-known for his many literary and journalistic works outside of Ukraine, where he lived after World War II, but in Soviet-era Ukraine he was a non-person. In 1991, with the independence of Ukraine, his works were again published in Ukraine, so that today he is widely known to the reader in Ukraine and his works are studied by the secondary school and university students of Ukraine.

At, literary evening in Mr. Bahriany's honor, Oleksij Konowal of the Bahriany Foundation gave a very interesting and detailed presentation about Mr. Bahriany and his literary and journalistic career. Mr. Konowal knew Mr. Bahriany personally and has been responsible for popularizing his works in Ukraine with the financial support of the Bahriany Foundation in the United States. Most recently Mr. Konowal worked on collecting Mr. Bahriany's correspondence (1946-1963), and this work was published in Ukraine as "Lystuvannia" in two volumes last fall. It received very wide positive coverage in the Ukrainian press.

To acquaint the audience with the work of Mr. Bahriany were two recent emigres from Ukraine, Olesia Shalak (graduate of Kyiv-Mohyla University) and Vera Lesyk (graduate of Ivano-Frankivsk University).

Ms. Shalak chose two passages from "Tyhrolovy" to illustrate the writer's use of words, which could convey harshness and brutality on the one hand or be lyrical and charming on the other.

Ms. Lesyk chose several different poems to illustrate the philosophical depth and harsh reality of life, as well as the expression of the beautiful, magical world of childhood.

| Home Page |