The Kyiv School in the Metaphysical Mirror of «Pure Poetry» and Literary History

Abstract

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Kyiv School. The amorphous Sixtiers (shistdesiatnytstvo), which emerged as a cultural phenomenon of the mid-twentieth century against the backdrop of the “Khrushchev Thaw,” failed to withstand the challenges of its time. It fragmented into different segments and split between adherents of the socialist-realist system and the underground. Forced to the margins of official literary life, the underground nevertheless remained at its core and, unlike the officialdom of the Writers’ Union (Spilka), enriched Ukrainian literature with works of high artistic value. The dividing lines between these literary groups were drawn during the party nomenklatura’s struggle against so-called “formalism,” deepened during the first and second “mowings,” and reached their apogee during the period of the “general pogrom.” Unlike the natural-philosophical lyricists who, like the representatives of “whimsical prose,” found niches within the non-alternative framework of Soviet literature, a part of the younger writers opposed it with “pure poetry,” stripped of pseudo-social and ideological clichés. They coalesced in the most renowned group of the time – the Kyiv School – as well as in kindred formations such as the Bakhmach School, around the Lviv almanac Skrynia, and in the LuHoSad group. This was not an escape from life but a deep immersion into its essence, a civic feat by talented authors who had no desire to participate in the false rituals of the Communist Party and literary officialdom. At the same time, they did not seek compromise with the literary officialdom like dissidents, nor did they openly oppose it like prisoners of conscience. Their works began to appear actively in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, during and after the collapse of the communist regime. The rejected stone became a cornerstone in the history of Ukrainian literature, revealing its continuity with the generation of the “Executed Renaissance,” established connections with émigré writing, and opened itself to global horizons.