Literature, Exile, Alterity: The New York Group of Ukrainian Poets (Studies in Russian and Slavic Literatures, Cultures, and History)

This pioneering book is the first to present the postwar phenomenon of the New York Group of Ukrainian émigré poets as a case study for exploring cultural and aesthetic ramifications of exile. It focuses on the poets' diasporic and transnational connections both with their country of origin and their adopted homelands, underscoring the group's role in the shaping of the cultural and literary image of Ukraine abroad. Displacements, forced or voluntary, engender states of alterity, states of living in-between, living in the interstices of different cultures and different linguistic realities. The poetry of the founding members of the New York Group reflects these states admirably. The poets accepted their exilic condition with no grudges and nurtured the link with their homeland via texts written in the mother tongue. This account of the group's output and legacy will appeal to all those eager to explore the poetry of East European nations and to those interested in larger cultural contexts for the development of European modernisms. "Long overdue, this sumptuous anthology of recent writings on the multiple interconnections between Judaism and contemporary psychoanalysis is endlessly illuminating. The range is indeed broad, from theology (God, of course), to biblical narratives (the Garden of Eden narrative), to ritual (shiva) on one side, and from Freud (of course), to Winnicott and Stephen Mitchell on the other. The scholarship is both impeccable and accessible to the general reader. A major contribution to both fields.-Dr. Neil Gillman, Aron Rabinowitz and Simon H. Rifkind Emeritus Professor of Jewish Philosophy, Jewish Theological Seminary of America" "Freud famously had one foot in fin de siFcle Vienna and the other in the world of his fellow Jews. His ambivalence about the gap between the Greco-Christian intellectual tradition of secular Vienna and his own Rabbinic tradition has been amply explored and documented. In this rich and original book, Aron and Henik bring these issues into the present. In keeping with relational and post-modern precepts, this effort is dialogic and intertextual; that is, it is not about Freud's dilemma, but rather about exploring and extending contemporary mutual influences. Brilliant and enlightening, this book represents a wide and impressive spectrum of scholarship, and will be of great value to anyone interested in the interface between Judaism, psychoanalysis and culture. So, what's not to like?-Edgar Levenson, MD Fellow Emeritus, Training and Supervisory Analyst and Faculty, William Alanson White Institute" "Lewis Aron and Libby Hen ik have edited a fresh and intellectually challenging collection of essays. Each contributor has original insights into history and practice of psychoanalysis, the fascinating question of Freud's Jewish ness, and the role of psychoanalysis in modern Jewish self-understanding.-Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College"--BOOK JACKET Inquiry, questioning, and wonder are defining features of both psychoanalysis and the Jewish tradition. The question invites inquiry, analysis, discussion, debate, multiple meanings, and interpretation that continues across the generations. If questions and inquiry are the mainstay of Jewish scholarship, then it should not be surprising that they would be central to the psychoanalytic method developed by Sigmund Freud. The themes taken up in this book are universal: trauma, traumatic reenactment, intergenerational transmission of trauma, love, loss, mourning, ritual—these subjects are of particular relevance and concern within Jewish thought and the history of the Jewish people, and they raise questions of great relevance to psychoanalysis both theoretically and clinically. In Answering a Question with a Question: Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Jewish Thought: A Tradition of Inquiry, Editors, Aron and Henik, have brought together an international collection of contemporary scholars and clinicians to address the interface and mutual influence of Jewish thought and modern psychoanalysis, two traditions of inquiry. Annotation This pioneering book is the first to present the postwar phenomenon of the New York Group of Ukrainian émigré poets as a case study for exploring cultural and aesthetic ramifications of exile. It focuses on the poets diasporic and transnational connections both with their country of origin and their adopted homelands, underscoring the groups role in the shaping of the cultural and literary image of Ukraine abroad. Displacements, forced or voluntary, engender states of alterity, states of living in-between, living in the interstices of different cultures and different linguistic realities. The poetry of the founding members of the New York Group reflects these states admirably. The poets accepted their exilic condition with no grudges and nurtured the link with their homeland via texts written in the mother tongue. This account of the groups output and legacy will appeal to all those eager to explore the poetry of East European nations and to those interested in larger cultural contexts for the development of European modernisms "In the late nineteenth century, a group of radical Jewish youths from Odessa attempted to create an agricultural commune on the Oregon frontier, and in so doing developed from assimilated revolutionaries to American Jews. Theodore Friedgut relates the story of these youths and their creation, with special notice paid to the human encounters within the commune, the members' encounters with America in acquiring land and equipment--and, importantly, their encounters with their neighbors, themselves immigrant farmers on the American frontier. Among the volume's central sources is the memoir of Israel Mandelkern, which is here published for the first time. This study addresses hitherto neglected aspects of Jewish life in Russia and of the life of one of the more than a hundred Jewish agricultural colonies, and helps us understand the factors that influenced the young colony members in their transition toward becoming Americans. This is a microcosm of the experience of multitudes of immigrants"--Amazon New Land, New Poetry -- Discursive Practices : Poetry As Power -- Periphery Vs. Center : The Poetics Of Exile -- From Surrealism To Postmodernism : The Poetics Of Liminality -- (post)modernist Masks : The Aesthetics Of The Play-element -- From Spain With Love, Or, Is There A Spanish School In Ukrainian Literature? -- Transforming Desire : The Many Faces Of Eroticism -- Eros And Exile -- Patricia Nell (kylyna) Warren's Constructed Alterities : Language, Self-exile, Homosexuality -- Literary New York : The New York Group And Beyond. Maria G. Rewakowicz. Includes Bibliographical References (pages [232]-242) And Index. Presents the postwar phenomenon of the New York Group of Ukrainian émigré poets as a case study for exploring cultural and aesthetic ramifications of exile. It focuses on the poets diasporic and transnational connections both with their country of origin and their adopted homelands, underscoring the group's role in the shaping of the cultural and literary image of Ukraine abroad. Presents the postwar phenomenon of the New York Group of Ukrainian emigre poets as a case study for exploring cultural and aesthetic ramifications of exile. It focuses on the poets diasporic and transnational connections both with their country of origin and their adopted homelands, underscoring the group's role in the shaping of the cultural and literary image of Ukraine abroad.