Vidome i pozavidome by Ostap Tarnawsky Ostap Tarnawsky by Zoriana s> Lanovyk (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 333 that the stories 'A Bathhouse' and 'A Dogged Sense of Smell' appear as translationsof the originaltextspublishedin Begemot and Smekhach respectively rather than the more common book-published versions. Hicks admits his subjectivity in the selection of variant source texts, which is of course the translator'sprerogative. 'Galosh' presumably has been selected as the title story because it exemplifiesthe tragicomicfrustrationsof Soviet life. That said, any numberof the storiesin the volume would have servedjust as well. As Hicks comments, the stories demonstrate 'one of the greatest feats of the peoples of the Soviet Union: their gallows humour, their laughterin the face of absurdityand evil. The tragedyof the Soviet Union has universalrepercussions,and itsportrayal as tragicomedyhas universalrelevance' (p. I8). A quality translation, of course, aims to preserve both meaning and style. In the past, attempting a Zoshchenko translation free of lost meaning or nuance often proved to be an exercise in futility. It is difficultto judge the durabilityof this volume, but as Hicks reminds us, 'Translationis always an attempt to minimize losses, and to fail better' (p. 22). Hicks should be commended for his efforts:he has produced translationsevokingearly Sovietera speech and Zoshchenko's verbal intricacies while resonating with the twenty-firstcenturyreader. School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies ELIZABETH SKOMP University College London Tarnawsky,Ostap. Vidome ipozavidome. Ukrainskamoderna literatura.Chas, Kyiv, I999. 584 pp. Notes. Index. Priceunknown. Lanovyk, Zoriana. OstapTarnawsky. Missionar, L'viv, I998. I8o pp. Illustrations . Notes. Bibliography.Price unknown. OSTAP TARNAWSKY (I9 I7-I 992) belongs to the category of writerswho, due to the expansion of the Soviet totalitarian regime, was forced to leave his homeland in WesternUkraine duringWorldWarII and emigrateto theWest. His tragedy, like that of the majority of Ukrainian emigre writers, was his isolation from his people in Ukraine and its literary tradition. Only in the wake of perestroikadid TarnawskyvisitUkraine, late in life in I989,just as his first publications (poetry, literary critiques and memoirs) began to appear. These two editions, therefore, exemplify the continuation of the returning process of diasporicliteratureinto the Ukrainian culturalmainstreamand, in particular,the increasinginterestin theprominentfigureof Ostap Tarnawsky. Vidome i nevidome is a collection of literary critiques on various topics, whilst Zoriana Lanovyk's monograph examines his literary activity, mainly his poetry and prose. Although the majorityof articlesfrom Vidome i nevidome have already been published in emigr&periodicals dating back to I951, they appear here in Ukraineforthefirsttime. The volume's sixchaptersaredevoted to philosophy, literary theory, and Ukrainian literature - continental and diasporic Western literature, and the arts (theatre and graphics). At the heart of Tarnawsky'swork is a preoccupation with the contradictorypoles of human 334 SEER, 8o, 2, 2002 experience the conflict between the real and the unreal, the physical and metaphysical, the material and spiritual, science (knowledge) and art (emotions ) which is aptly reflected in the volume's title Vidome ipozavidome ('the known and beyond the known').Tarnawsky'sinterestis focused, however, on the irrational,the counter-pole, as it were, which, he believed, held the key to the revelation of 'pravda i dobro' (truth and good). His perspective was strongly influenced by the French existentialists (Liudyna v nasvitlenni flosofii ekzystentsiializmu), whose notion of the exhaustion of modernism, with its emphasis on technology and its dehumanizing forces, served to '[humiliate] man more, [and make] him an element of a monsterwithout eithera soul or a goal' (Podorozh poza vidome, p. ii 9). Although, according to Tarnawsky,man aspires principally to knowledge, it cannot answer his most vital questions. Man, he argued, 'because of his knowledge, no longer wonders and is glad in his life' (Propopuliarnist poezii)(p. go); a state responsiblefor the decline, as he saw it, of art and poetry. Salvation could only be achieved through a focus on the irrationaland the metaphysical,combined in artand literature,as a means of accessing a higher aesthetic plane (Liudynakhocheviryty).Tarnawsky's 'escape' into this 'worldof art'was, undoubtedly, conditioned by his feelings of emigre fragmentationand dislocation, and his experience of alienation and uncertaintyliving as an exile in a foreignland. Some of Tarnawsky's more provocative work includes his comparative studies, in which he would elaborate unusual parallels between ancient and modern artistsand thinkers.A consideration of mythological characterssuch as the Minotaur, Kozhumiaka, and St Andrew (Mandrivka Mitu, Tradytsiia Kozhumiaky) would...