Book Discussion: The Tales of Baba Havryshykha, by Oleh Havrish

Session Submission Type: Book Discussion Roundtable

Brief Description

The panel will focus on Oleh Havrish’s “Kazky baby Havryshykha” and its English translation “The Tales of Baba Havryshykha.” The book was awarded the 2019 Mykola Hohol Prize in Ukraine for best book in the genre of horror tales, but it is much more than just a single genre description. The book is based on traditional Ukrainian folktales told to the author by his baba, his grandmother, when he and other grandchildren used to visit her in the village of Nekreminne in Eastern Ukraine. Folktales and folk songs historically have been seminal for the development of Ukrainian identity in terms of promoting the Ukrainian language as well as teaching didactic lessons to Ukrainian children about good and evil and working together for the betterment of society to overcome individual flaws and evil. Panelists will discuss various elements of Havrish’s narratives including: linguistic aspects of the tales; strategies for translating the tales into English and editing them for Anglophone audiences; similarities and differences to traditional Ukrainian folktales; comparisons to folktales in world literature; the monstrous entities of the tales as metaphors of fear, power, and survival that reflect historical trauma and social anxieties; nostalgic elements in the tales; the tales as a means of psychological comfort for children and the traumatized Ukrainian population during the war; humor as a narratological device and as a vehicle for cultural and social critique; and comparisons to Mykola Hohol’s "Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka" and his other early Ukrainian-themed horror stories.

Sub Unit

• Folklore Studies

Chair

• Ludmilla A. Trigos, Independent Scholar

Roundtable Speakers

• Svitlana Budzhak-Jones, Independent Scholar

• Mariia Grytsenko, Taras Shevchenko National U of Kyiv (Ukraine)

• Alla Shyrokova Manno, Autonomous U of Barcelona (Spain)

• Michael M. Naydan, Pennsylvania State U

• Olha Tytarenko, Yale U