In Search of Fleeting Freedom: Oksana Lutsyshyna’s 'Ivan and Phoebe'

• In Event: Contemporary Ukrainian Literature: The Frontiers of Freedom

Abstract

In the wake of the collapse of the USSR, the burden of the Soviet legacy in Ukraine remained palpable, but the collective inspiration to move away from the oppressive past and transform the country that was under the control of Russia for too long was profound. Through the relationship story of Ivan and Phoebe, Oksana Lutsyshyna in her novel Ivan and Phoebe highlights liberation as a process and a moment rather than an ultimate goal providing some sense of completeness and fulfillment. The ongoing (re)discovery and (re)living of the essentials constituting the system of existential priorities are an inseparable part of the viability of individual or national freedom.

Author

• Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed, Harvard U