The Collective Monograph “Imagological Studies: Ukrainians and Jews in the Mirror of Literature” features articles by scholars of the research project “Jewish Heritage in Ukraine: Interdisciplinary Reflections through the Lenses of Archival Documents, Culture, History and Literature”, implemented within the framework of NaUKMA-UNESCO partnership project with the fi nancial support of the European Union. Monograph’s articles are dedicated to a comprehensive analysis of the Ukrainian-Jewish cultural and literary dialogue through the prism of imagology. The presented studies focus on the issues of mutual reflection, identity, historical memory, and overcoming trauma.
A broad chronological and thematic scope allows for tracing the dynamics of Jewish and Ukrainian representation in literary texts, ranging from apocryphal manuscripts about Pontius Pilate to iconic works by classics of Ukrainian literature, namely Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, and Lesya Ukrainka. Particular attention is paid to 20th-century texts and figures, specifically the figure of Yeremiia Aizenshtok in the context of Kharkiv Formalism and the impressions of Yiddish writers regarding the “new Kharkiv”. Concurrently, a significant place in the publication is occupied by studies on the autobiographical prose of Alexander Granach, the artistic world of Leonid Pervomaysky, as well as reflections on the Holocaust and the events of World War II as mirrored in contemporary Ukrainian and world prose. The theoretical framework of the research incorporates reception aesthetics, comparative literature, biographical studies, memory studies, trauma studies, and other approaches. These methodologies allow for a fresh interpretation of both understudied and well-known texts relevant to the conceptualization of national and local identities.
The monograph is addressed to philologists, cultural studies scholars, historians, faculty members, and students of humanities departments, as well as anyone interested in the history of Ukrainian-Jewish relations, the artistic reception of Eastern Europe, and the problems of intercultural dialogue.