“My Final Territory: Selected Essays,” by Yuri Anrukhovych. Translated by Mark Andryczyk and Michael M. Naydan. Toronto.: University of Toronto Press, 2018. 170 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4875-0171-6. $30-$40, hardcover; $20-$38, e-book.
Yuri Andrukhovych, one of Ukraine’s pre-eminent authors and cultural commentators, is credited with having renewed Ukrainian poetry in the mid-1980s. “My Final Territory” is a collection of 12 of his essays – 10 appearing for the first time in English. Touching on fields including philosophy, history, journalism, political science, sociology and anthropology, they are meant to demonstrate his enormous talent as an essayist to the English-speaking world and provide insight into the Ukrainian experience of nationality and identity.
In their introduction, translators Michael Naydan and Mark Andryczyk reveal a somewhat lesser-known side of Mr. Andrukhovych’s writings that place him alongside such writers as recent Belarusian Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich.
Reviewing this book, Myroslav Shkandrij of the Department of Slavic Studies at the University of Manitoba, writes: “This translation of ‘My Final Territory’ captures Andrukhovych’s ‘lightness of touch’ admirably. The English-language reader learns much about Ukraine that will be novel, eye-opening and inspiring. This is the most valuable achievement of the collection. It allows the reader to hear and see from the perspective of an outstanding contemporary Ukrainian writer and intellectual who engages with the opinions about his country held by others.”
Hailing from the western Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk, Mr. Andrukhovych studied both there and in Lviv. He began his literary career as a poet and has published six books of poetry; many of his newer poems have been turned into popular rock songs by now-classic Ukrainian rock bands Mertvyi Piven and Plach Yeremii. The unifying feature in Mr. Andrukhovych’s work, across all genres, has been called “hybridity” – one can find in every work a polyphony of styles and literary devices.
Mr. Andrukhovych has received numerous national and international prizes, including the prestigious Herder Prize in Literature (2001), the Antonovych Prize in Literature (2001), the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize (2005), the Leipzig Book Fair Prize (2006) for European mutual understanding, the Hanna Arendt Prize (2014) and a Goethe Medal (2016) for his promotion of German culture in Ukraine. His works have been translated into many languages, including Bulgarian, Czech, English, Finnish, French, German, Polish, Russian and Swedish.
Mr. Andrukhovych resides in Ivano-Frankivsk and is a member of the editorial board of Ukrainian periodicals Krytyka and Potyah76, and serves as a juror for the Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award.
“My Final Territory” is available online through Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and through the publisher at https://utorontopress.com/us/my-final-territory-1.