Origins and Development of a Modern Ukrainian National Literature: The Role of Genre

What role do the foundational kinds of literature – poetry, drama and prose – as well as their many subgenres play in literary history? The question is complex and important for an understanding of culture as one of the significant forces that motivate social change. In the case of the cultures of nations asserting themselves against colonial domination and shaping national audiences and national public opinion, the issue is especially salient. Yet Ukrainian literary historians, though they have devoted much attention to the connection between literature and society, invoking various theoretical models in order to do so, have paid little attention to the role of genre in organising and structuring this connection.
It is this scholarly blind spot that Achilli and Pavlyshyn hope to illuminate. To help them do so they are seeking funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) to enable the involvement of international colleagues in their project. The core of the project, however, is the work to be carried out by Achilli and Pavlyshyn themselves, and it is salary support for the research component of their endeavours that is sought under this application, together with the costs associated with Achilli’s and Pavlyshyn’s conducting research (travel for research purposes, teaching relief, research assistance, consumables, and space).