Relevance and Evolution of Tagoreana in Ukraine: Major Trajectories
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Abstract
Using newly available materials not studied and researched before, this paper attempts to systematize the century old Ukrainian Tagoreana. The paper proposes the process of reception of Rabindranath Tagore, hitherto not done in Ukraine due to historical reasons, to be divided into six periods, from 1913 till today. In attempting this, it also explains what the concept Tagoreana implies, and why it should be used to trace and define the major trajectories in Ukraine which are rooted in philosophical enquiry, and include translation, interpretation and research of Tagore’s texts, audio-visual and performing arts, as well as their aesthetic appreciation through original creations. Such periodization reveals the hermeneutic evolution of Tagoreana: until 1930s, unlike in the West, Ukraine’s reception was not “orientalist”, Ukrainians upheld Tagore’s wisdom, non-western approaches to empires, deep commitment to harmony between nature and humans, education for enlightenment. Later, Tagoreana was controlled by the state as Soviet power was consolidated over Ukraine. Tagore’s Moscow visit was carefully planned by the Soviet authorities in 1930 for winning international recognition. Yet, during 1929–1955 Tagore’s works were not published in the USSR, including Ukraine.
On the one hand, till the 1960s, the decades were full of terror against intellectuals, who played a big role in the reception of Tagore like Yukhim Myhayliv, Yuriy Siriy, Pavlo Ritter, Yevhen Pluzhnyk and Myhailo Ivchenko, and on the other hand, there was totalitarian state control, which used Tagore as an anti-imperialist and anti-colonial poet in the light of Soviet state ideology. The thaw of the 1960s and then perestroika of the 1980s led to some freedom, bringing poets and translators such as Victor Batiuk into limelight, although censored and banned writings of Tagore continued to be distributed underground among dissidents. Finally, the independence of Ukraine gave wider freedom and opportunities for reception of Tagore to be transformed from state-governed enterprise with political agenda to individual creative freedom and private initiatives. Analysis of Tagoreana trends shows that after the Russian aggression against Ukraine, reception of Tagore opens yet another dimension; it enables Ukraine’s postcolonial literary dialog with India as well as with the Global South on an equitable, non-hegemonic keel, which provides possible cultural bases for decolonization.
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