Ukraine 8 клас Ukrainian Literature

1. Introduction

Literature in its historical-cultural context

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2. Ancient Ukraine in literature

Culture and beliefs of ancient Ukrainians

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3. Kyivan Rus: culture and writing

Oral epic: byliny (starynas) · Old Ukrainian writing

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4. The Bible and Ukrainian literature

The Bible as a sacred book and source · Biblical motifs in poetry

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5. Literature of Cossack Ukraine

Historical songs and dumas · Baroque poetry · Modern prose about Cossacks

• The Baroque: Art in Motion (c. 1600–1750) – Baroque is the European style of about 1600 to 1750 in painting, sculpture, architecture, music and literature. It grew in Rome after the Reformation, when the Catholic Church and kings used art to move and impress people. Its marks are motion, contrast and emotion: diagonals, dramatic light (chiaroscuro and tenebrism), curving walls and domes, gold and illusion ceilings, music with a basso continuo and many weaving voices, and writing full of contrasts, surprising metaphors and the theme of passing time. Key names: Caravaggio, Bernini, Rubens, Rembrandt, Velázquez, Borromini, Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Góngora, Donne. Classicism answered it with order, reason and calm.

6. Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars

Crimean Tatar literature

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7. 19th-century poetry: styles and genres

Romantic and realist lyric poetry · Ballad · Fable and humorous verse

• Romanticism – Romanticism was a movement in literature, art and music from about 1780 to 1850. It reacted against the Age of Reason's strict rules and against ugly, crowded factory towns. Romantics valued nature, especially wild and 'sublime' nature, strong personal feeling, the free individual, imagination and dreams, the past and folk culture. Key figures include Wordsworth, Keats, Goethe, Pushkin, Mary Shelley, Victor Hugo, the painters Turner and Friedrich, and composers such as Chopin and Schubert.

8. Romantic and realist prose of the 19th century

Romantic prose · Realist prose

• Romanticism – Romanticism was a movement in literature, art and music from about 1780 to 1850. It reacted against the Age of Reason's strict rules and against ugly, crowded factory towns. Romantics valued nature, especially wild and 'sublime' nature, strong personal feeling, the free individual, imagination and dreams, the past and folk culture. Key figures include Wordsworth, Keats, Goethe, Pushkin, Mary Shelley, Victor Hugo, the painters Turner and Friedrich, and composers such as Chopin and Schubert.

9. 19th-century drama

Ukrainian comedy on stage

• Drama: Elements, Stagecraft and Performance – Drama is a story told by actors who become characters and act it out in front of an audience. Every drama has characters who want something, a conflict when those wants clash, a plot that builds tension to a climax and then resolves, dialogue, a setting and a theme. On stage, actors use voice and body, and the production adds lighting, set, costume and sound.

10. Local literature, new books, review

Reading beyond the core list

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