Volume 20, Issue 2

2025

Publication date: 25.02.2026

Description

The publication has been supported by a grant from the Faculty of Philology under the Strategic Programme Excellence Initiative at Jagiellonian University.

Cover design: Paweł Bigos

Licence: CC BY 4.0

Editorial team

Editor-in-Chief Katarzyna Bazarnik

Zastępca redaktor naczelnej / sekretarz Natalia Palich

Issue editor Iwona Boruszkowska, Tetiana Pawlińczuk

Issue content

Wstęp: bliskość jako figura poznania i współodczuwania

Iwona Boruszkowska, Tetiana Pawlińczuk

Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, Volume 20, Issue 2, 2025, pp. 77-83

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W świecie matki: histeria kolonialna (fragment książki Kultura tranzytowa. Symptomy postkolonialnej traumy)

Tamara Hundorowa

Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, Volume 20, Issue 2, 2025, pp. 85-93

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843933ST.25.012.222043

This article is a chapter from Tamara Hundorova’s monograph Транзитна культура. Симптоми постколоніальної травми (Transit Culture: Symptoms of Postcolonial Trauma), in which the author analyzes Ahatanhel Krymsky’s unfinished novel, Андрій Лаговський (Andriĭ Lahovs’kiĭ; 1905–1919), through the lens of colonial resentment. Embedded in the textual structure, this resentment provides a means to explore distinctions between anti-colonial and postcolonial critiques of the imperial center. Krymsky’s unfinished novel exemplifies modernist fiction, featuring an intellectual protagonist, a polymorphous structure, philosophical and moral themes, psychological analysis and self-referentiality. It also features perverse sexuality, adventure, family conflicts and extensive intertextuality, including quotations and “text within text.” The philosophy of asceticism reflects the protagonist’s form of internal emigration. The eponymous protagonist, Andriĭ Lahovs’kiĭ, a professor of mathematics and a poet, raised by a Ukrainian mother but educated in Moscow, experiences constant resentment due to his ethnic origin and precarious economic status. Krymsky constantly emphasizes the hysterical tendencies and psychological pathologies of his character. Central to the novel is the theme of linguistic and cultural translation, illustrated by Lakhovsky’s trip to Crimea with the family of his employer, Russian General Schmidt, during which he has an affair with a Greek woman called Zoya. This episode exposes his colonial mentality and sense of powerlessness. Hysteria emerges as a defining feature of the colonial subject: one who rejects maternal influence, is depleted of energy – including sexual energy – succumbs to illusions and dreams of idealized love, while remaining physically and psychologically weakened. In Krymski’s portrayal, the colonial subject is caught between languages and cultural values, rendered powerless and lost in the tensions of cultural translation.

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Раритетні видання українських класиків в українській книгозбірні Бібліотеки філологічного факультету Ягеллонського університету

Walentyna Łoś

Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, Volume 20, Issue 2, 2025, pp. 95-110

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843933ST.25.009.222040

This article presents the first comprehensive review of rare editions within the Ukrainian publications collection at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Research on inscriptions and library seals indicates that the collection originated in the late 19th century and developed within the broader context of growing interest in Slavic studies at that time. Its expansion resulted from both faculty-initiated acquisitions and donations, which explains the presence of valuable rare editions of Ukrainian literary classics, including the first edition of Taras Shevchenko’s Kobzar (1840). The collection also features first editions with autographs and dedicatory inscriptions, including works by M. Maksymovych, V. Stefanyk and B. Lepky, highlighting its significance and the professional connections between Polish and Ukrainian intellectuals at the turn of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of cultural memory and Polish-Ukrainian historical relations.

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Ukraina we wspomnieniach, pamiętnikach i flamandzkich „obrazkach” Aleksandra Grozy

Aleksandra Ewelina Mikinka

Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, Volume 20, Issue 2, 2025, pp. 111-120

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843933ST.25.008.222039

This article analyzes selected fragments from the works of Alexander Groza, a lesserknown writer associated with the “Ukrainian school” of Polish Romanticism. Drawing on Groza’s memoirs, prose writings, as well as his recollections preserved in obituaries and contemporary press accounts, the study reconstructs the image of Ukraine that emerges from these texts. It asks whether this image represents a “Near Ukraine”, both metaphorically and geographically, or a land perceived as wild, alien, dangerous and incomprehensible. Alternatively, as is often the case with writers of the Ukrainian school, Ukraine may appear as a fluid and amorphous space – constantly approaching and receding, suspended between familiarity and otherness, and balancing on the threshold of understanding its culture, history, folk rituals, and dynamics. Methodologically, the article combines biographical criticism, comparative analysis, cultural studies, and postcolonial approaches.

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„…z kominów ust…” – Mykoła Chwylowy jako poeta o duszy robotnika

Iwona Boruszkowska

Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, Volume 20, Issue 2, 2025, pp. 121-137

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843933ST.25.010.222041

The article examines the poetic oeuvre of Ukrainian writer Mykola Khvyl’ovy, known primarily as an outstanding prose writer. Khvyl’ovy began his literary career as a poet, publishing in periodicals, and produced two collections: Molodist’ (Youth; 1921) and Dosvitni symfonii (Twilight Symphonies; 1922), which remain untranslated into Polish. His poetry, written in a symbolist neo-romantic style, is notable for its revolutionary and proletarian character, as well as its use of free verse. Moreover, Khvyl’ovy’s poems reflect the challenging sociopolitical realities of Ukraine following World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution.

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Inspiracje szamanistyczne i magiczne w twórczości Ołeha Łyszehy

Mateusz Mościszko

Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, Volume 20, Issue 2, 2025, pp. 139-148

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843933ST.25.011.222042

This article explores the relationship between Ukrainian culture and poetry and shamanistic and magical practices, focusing on the work of Oleh Lysheha. It examines elements of folk magic practiced by the inhabitants of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains and situates shamanistic motifs within Ukrainian and global literary traditions. The main part of the study analyzes Lysheha’s poetry in the context of motifs that reference magical and shamanic initiations and practices, highlighting how these elements shape his poetic vision.

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Apokaliptyczność, symbolizm, subwersywność. Wieloznaczność ukraińskich podstaw dyskursu czarnobylskiego

Paulina Feliksik

Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, Volume 20, Issue 2, 2025, pp. 149-159

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843933ST.25.013.222044

The article examines the perception of the Chernobyl disaster through the lens of Ukrainian literature. It builds on terminology proposed by Tamara Hundorova, including “Chernobyl discourse”, “Chernobyl texts” and “post-Chernobyl texts’, as well as the concept of the “Chernobyl generation”, which encompasses writers such as Oksana Zabuzhko. The latter’s essay, Planet Wormwood, is analyzed in detail as a representative text that both participates in the Chernobyl discourse and illuminates its key contexts and symbols. Special attention is given to the motif of wormwood, a symbol of the Chernobyl disaster that resonates with Ukrainian folk legends. The article emphasizes the Ukrainian foundations of the “Chernobyl discourse” – often overlooked or underappreciated – and demonstrates their relevance for analyzing the broader corpus of Chernobyl literature across different cultural and linguistic contexts.

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Webcomics as a Reflection of Current Social Anxieties: A Look at the Post-apocalyptic For Their Own Good (2020) by Kateryna Kosheleva

Elżbieta Niewiadoma

Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, Volume 20, Issue 2, 2025, pp. 161-174

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843933ST.25.014.222045

The comic medium has long served as a reflection of contemporary social anxieties. Webcomics – comics created for online publication – have evolved from early works inspired by syndicated strips to address more serious issues, including pressing societal concerns. This article focuses on the ongoing Ukrainian webcomic For Their Own Good (2020), by Kateryna Kosheleva, analyzing how it engages with two prominent contemporary anxieties: anti-scientific sentiment and war. This study also examines the ways in which the comic medium effectively portrays these issues, drawing on relevant theories of comics and graphic narratives. The article concludes that webcomics, like other forms of graphic storytelling, provide a valuable lens for exploring societal turbulence, and should be considered in analyses of contemporary online graphic narratives.

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Title and imprint pages PDF Table of Contents PDF About the Authors PDF

Słowa kluczowe: Андрій Лаговський (Andriĭ Lahovsʹkiĭ), Ahatanhel Krymsky, colonial resentment, modernist Ukrainian novel, book collection, Taras Shevchenko’s Kobzar, rare first editions, gift inscriptions, the Ukrainian school in Polish Romanticism, Romanticism, Aleksander Groza, Kiïv Contract Fair, diary studies, Mykola Khvyl’ovy, proletarian poetry, Ukrainian Avant-garde, revolution and literature, Oleh Lysheha, shamanism, folk magic, Chernobyl discourse, Chernobyl generation, Chernobyl texts, Chernobyl, Wormwood Planet, Oksana Zabuzhko, Tamara Hundorova, the comic medium, webcomics, graphic narratives, Ukrainian comics, war and conflict, anti-intellectualism, Kateryna Kosheleva, For Their Own Good

Funding information

The publication has been supported by a grant from the Faculty of Philology under the Strategic Programme Excellence Initiative at Jagiellonian University.

Volume 20, Issue 2

2025 Next

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Funding information

2025