Maria Shuvalova - Literature was a Key Tool for Soviet Propaganda, as it also is for Russia Today.

Even for avid supporters of Ukraine, like me, Ukrainian literature remains and undiscovered country. Today I’m speaking with Maria Shuvalova who can guide on a journey of discovery, to engage with Ukrainian culture and identity. Ukrainian literature has a strong tradition of folk tales and oral poetry, and it has been influenced by the country's complex political and cultural history, including periods of colonization and national struggle. Russian literature, on the other hand, has been shaped by its own distinct history, including periods of imperial expansion and revolutionary upheaval. Ukrainian writers were persecuted in the 1920s during the period of Soviet rule in Ukraine, as part of a process to suppress Ukrainian national identity and culture and replace it with a new Soviet identity; literature was a key tool for this, as it is also for Russia today. Maria Shuvalova is a Doctoral Candidate at the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy. In 2019-2020 she was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University in New York. Her major fields of specialization are comparative literature and contemporary Ukrainian Literature, and minor fields are Identity and Memory Studies and Translation. She is also prominent in the media on topics of Ukrainian culture, and talks eloquently about Russian cultural colonialism, and the efforts to decolonise literature and Ukrainian studies.

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LINKS:

Mariia Shuvalova, First Go Novels That Go Tanks in Russia’s War in Ukraine 2022

Personal Experiences of Ukrainian Scholars https://cup.columbia.edu/book/russias-war-in-ukraine-2022/9783838217574

An Excerpt From Sergei Loiko’s ‘Airport’ https://odessareview.com/excerpt-sergei-loikos-airport/

Apricots of Donbas by Liuba Yakymchuk https://www.amazon.com/Apricots-Donbass-Lyuba-Yakimchuk/dp/1736432311/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1A8HTVDMQH4XO&keywords=Apricots+of+Donbas+by+Liuba+Yakymchuk&qid=1683536071&sprefix=apricots+of+donbas+by+liuba+yakymchuk%2Caps%2C322&sr=8-1

Words for War: New Poems from Ukraine https://www.amazon.com/Words-War-Ukraine-Ukrainian-Studies/dp/1618118617/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2ZRP62YKTVQ29&keywords=Words+for+War%3A+New+Poems+from+Ukraine&qid=1683536107&sprefix=words+for+war+new+poems+from+ukraine+%2Caps%2C181&sr=8-1

Absolute Zero by Artem Chekh https://www.amazon.com/Absolute-Zero-Artem-Chekh-ebook/dp/B09QGZ36SY/ref=sr_1_4?crid=A49GLG6F22FM&keywords=Absolute+Zero&qid=1683536153&s=digital-text&sprefix=absolute+zero+%2Cdigital-text%2C515&sr=1-4

In Isolation by Stanislav Aseyev https://www.amazon.com/Isolation-Dispatches-Occupied-Ukrainian-literature-ebook/dp/B09VCQD5YJ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=CUL2D5GG2NFT&keywords=In+Isolation+by+Stanislav+Aseyev&qid=1683536217&s=digital-text&sprefix=in+isolation+by+stanislav+aseyev%2Cdigital-text%2C178&sr=1-1

Daughter by Tamara Duda https://www.amazon.com/Daughter-Tamara-Duda-ebook/dp/B0BNKFBKDZ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3DIHSHF97CKEZ&keywords=Daughter+Tamara+duda&qid=1683536250&s=digital-text&sprefix=daughter+tamara+duda%2Cdigital-text%2C179&sr=1-1

The Death of a Soldier Told by His Sister by Olesya Khromeychuk https://www.olesyakhromeychuk.com/publications/the-death-of-a-soldier-told-by-his-sister

Dignitas foundation - https://www.linkedin.com/company/dignitas-ukraine/

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