Video lecture - Alessandro Achilli: Changes of Kiev’s Image in Contemporary Ukrainian Poetry

Dr. Alessandro Achilli is Lecturer in Ukrainian Studies and Director of the Mykola Zerov Centre for Ukrainian Studies at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. His research interests include modern and contemporary Ukrainian literature, with special attention to poetry, and comparative literature.

About Dr. Achilli’s lecture:

In contemporary Ukrainian poetry, the urban text is once again linked to the war text. Ukrainian poets tend to represent Kyiv as both distant from the battle front and as part of it, given the visible and invisible traces left by the Revolution of Dignity. I shall show how contemporary poetry has redefined the image of Kyiv as a synecdoche for today’s Ukraine, situating the city at the crossroads of war and peace, and of past, present and future. Before focusing on most recent Ukrainian poetry through examples taken from collections by Pavlo Korobchuk and Iia Kiva, I will also discuss instances of a more traditional depiction of Kyiv in Ukrainian poetry of the 1990s through the example of Attyla Mohyl’nyi.

A Presentation is available for this lecture ( pdf document / powerpoint document ).