Ukrainian literature

Like Russian and Belorussian writing, Ukrainian literature has its origins in books written in Kievan Russ from the 11th to the 13th century. After the disruption of Mongol invasion, Ukrainian writing revived in the 16th century. It acquired a new vigour from the late 18th century in works such as the influential Virgilian travesty Eneida 1798 by Ivan Kotlyarevsky (1769-1838). Ukrainian Romanticism reached a climax in the influential poetry of Shevchenko and Books of Genesis of the Ukrainian People 1846 by Mykola Kostomarov (1817-1885), despite (or because of) Russian disfavour, including an eventual ban on all Ukrainian publications 1863 and 1871. The later 19th century saw distinguished realist fiction by Panas Myrny (1849-1920) and by Ivan Franko (1856-1916), influenced by Zola.

In the 20th century writers such as the romantic Mykola Khvlovy (1893-1933) flourished until Stalinist socialist realism cast a blight in the 1930s, but Ukrainian literature revived in the 1960s with the work of new writers such as Lina Kostenko (1930- ), who incurred official displeasure for her un-Soviet ‘formalism’.