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Report for Central European Fellowship for Young European
Writer 2006
 First
of all I would like to thank Central European Initiative and the
Slovene Writers’ Association for awarding me the "Writers in
Residence" Fellowship, which gave me an opportunity to test myself
as a prose writer and to realize my intention to write a book of
short stories -- and, of course, to live in the united Europe
again. It is rather difficult to speak about Europe for someone
who knows nothing about it. Europe inspires because it cannot help
doing it, and residence in Europe can teach many things.
I have always considered myself a European citizen, but this three
months residence in EU countries filled the notion of "European
citizen" with a new content for me. The experience of living in
Europe without borders became something special for me as a
Ukrainian writer. Unfortunately, Ukraine, though it has been an
independent state for seventeen years, remains a very closed
country, and first of all for its own citizens who wish to visit
Europe not as tourists on Mediterranean beaches and not as
gastarbeiters. Both tourists and gastarbeiters, unlike other
categories of travelers, do get to go to Europe. But it is far
more difficult to visit Europe for an artist, who travels with,
let us say, professional purpose.
I believe that the situation of art and literature in particular
in Ukraine has recently improved, but at the same time it has also
deteriorated substantially. Unfortunately, this deterioration is
being discussed only in private talks, and not at the official
level. But the truth is that Ukrainian state has stopped
supporting the culture and literature, which promote democratic
and educational goals, since an enlightened society is far more
resistant to manipulations. The authorities do declare that they
are supportive of a highly educated society, but in reality they
do not promote it. And we, Ukrainian artists, Ukrainian writers,
find ourselves in a new situation of isolation -- especially
compared to the artists who are citizens of the European and
American countries. We -- just because we are not citizens of
European Union – cannot visit European countries freely, get to
know the world, travel, and get to know other European cultures as
they were in the twentieth century and as they became in the
twenty-first century. We know almost nothing about the state of
cultures even of the largest European countries, to say nothing
about the cultures of smaller countries, such as, for example,
Slovenia.
As a result, the European culture is not
perceived as an integral unity, though such perception is
extremely important. It is indeed vital for understanding what
"Europe without borders" is. But even a writer, a Ukrainian
citizen, who, like me, gets a chance (thanks to a fellowship
program, for instance) to go to any European country, is not
spared the humiliation and absurdity of the visa process. I am
talking not only about the strange and meaningless rules that are
meant in fact to prevent one from obtaining a visa, but also the
attitude of the officials towards the citizens of Ukraine. In my
mind, this resembles the attitude towards black citizens of the
U.S. during the first half of the twentieth century, manifesting
patterns which we generally call racism. In any case, my personal
experience of obtaining the Schengen visa was very negative. It is
enough to say that I got my Schengen visa not on the term from
March 1st till May, 27th, as was indicated in all of my
application documents, including a letter from the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Republic of Poland to Consul of Republic of
Poland in Lviv, but from February, 5th till May, 5th. That forced
me to set off from Ukraine practically a month earlier. It meant a
number of inconveniences for me, since I had to rearrange my
accommodation. Fortunately, in this situation I was treated
kindly, and I could write my book without difficulty.
In
fact, all my troubles ended as soon as I finally crossed the
border of Poland. The first two weeks I spent in Warsaw, and then
I departed to Cieszyn-Těšin, where I spent the rest of the time
provided by the fellowship. It is a small town in the south of
Poland, actually two towns, a Polish Cieszyn and a Czech Český
Těšin. The town is divided into two parts by the Olza river, which
is the state border between Czech Republic and Poland. Actually,
while living in this town I truly understood what Europe without
borders is. In the morning I went to buy Polish newspapers, then
crossed a bridge, crossing the state border -- just crossing a
bridge, -- and on Czech territory bought Czech newspapers. From
the railway station in Český Těšin I went to other Czech cities,
and from the station in Polish Cieszyn I went to some Polish
cities. An event of special importance for me, of course, was a
week-long stay in Prague. In such a way I began to discover the
Czech Republic for myself. In fact, I knew a lot about the Czech
Republic, in particular, about the Czech avant-garde, which has a
number of common features with the Ukrainian avant-garde, but I
knew it only from the Ukrainian perspective. Now I was able to
complement my knowledge, so to say, with the Czech perspective.
And this applies not only to the Czech avant-garde. By the way,
exactly at this time the Warsaw National Museum was holding a
great exhibition "Wyprawa w dwudziestolecie" (“Expedition in the
20th century”), presenting an extremely large and thoroughly
prepared collection of Polish avant-garde. I used my chance to
visit this exhibition as well. And this is an example of "Europe
without borders", something that would be impossible for me to
experience as a Ukrainian artist, without the fellowship. I would
not have been able to just go and visit this historic exhibition
in Warsaw (because the works collected from the museums and
private collections of all Poland were presented there). I would
not have been able to have a chance to compare the works of the
representatives of Ukrainian, Polish and Czech avant-garde to make
sure that the European culture is whole and integral. Finally,
though my Polish-Czech "parallel" life itself was a special
experience, Cieszyn has the river, exactly the kind I was looking
for to write my book of stories "Path alongside the River".
This was the book (" Path alongside the river") I proposed
last year, including it in my application for the "Writers in
Residence" fellowship. Needless to say, in the process of writing
the book began to live its own life and develop by its own
internal laws, and I as an author had to submit to these laws.
Initially, it should have consisted of many short stories.
Instead, I wrote six rather long short stories -- "SHE AND THE
KIDS", "THE PUPPET HOUSE", "LIVE AND DEAD PERFORMANCE", "ALL AS IT
SHOULD BE", "THE SORCERER AND THE PRINCE", " PROMETHEUS". These
stories are multifaceted, containing many layers of meaning. I
wrote them on the basis of the material which I have been thinking
about for several years. On the surface, each story has a simple
plot, and each story refers to universal mythological subjects,
trying, however, to avoid direct prototypes. The stories contain a
difficult intellectual game. Every text contains a lot of literary
allusions and quotations. For example, "ALL AS IT SHOULD BE" is in
a certain sense an "anti-Bovary" story, but at the same time it is
a story about the meeting of woman and a faun. This is plot
adopted from classic Greek mythology. At the same time it is an
allusion to the poems of the Russian poet Joseph Brodsky, and a
strange love-story with a happy ending. But what was and remains
the most important for me is the development of a liminal
situation, a collision of the archaic and the mythological with,
so to say, the "technogeneous", the urban within the limits of a
human consciousness. This theme prevails in "THE PUPPET HOUSE",
but it is present distinctly in the rest of my stories, too.
Actually, I in my prose, as well as in my poetry, I use the
mechanisms of myth creation and mythologization, because only myth
and special mythological or mythologizing consciousness help the
humans in the process of becoming self-conscious in the context of
total alienation in the urban dehumanizing environment.
In
the final version of my book I don't deal with that same path and
that same river that I planned at the beginning, and the models of
time and space of the stories are different from the originally
intended ones. But each story retains the concepts of a path and a
river, and the opposition of a city and a little town as well.
This opposition determines a conflict, each time in different way,
in five of six stories in the book "Path alongside the River".
Just as I wanted, my short stories are extremely "real". But
since concrete stories from life contain a mythological plot and
some literary allusions, these texts in any case are not
“realistic”. They can be read in different ways, depending on the
perspective and a viewpoint. During my stay in Poland and Czech
Republic, in Ukraine, in "Fakt" publishing house (Kyiv) my new
book of poems "Deshcho shchodenne" (“Something Daily”) was
published. Now this publishing house is ready to publish my book
"Path alongside the River". If this happens, this will be my third
book published by this publishing house, since my collection of
poetry "Common Language" was published in "Fakt" in 2005. In
addition, in March volume of "Kyyivs'ka Rus'" magazine my
translations of poems by Slovenian poet Tomaž Šalamun with large
essays about Tomaž Šalamun's poetry and Andrej Blatnik's prose
were published (short stories by Andrej Blatnik, published in the
same magazine, were translated by Andriy Porytko). By the way, I
have already prepared a large selection of my Ukrainian
translations of the poems by some remarkable Slovenian poets.
These texts can be published in "Courier Krivbasu" magazine as
soon as I get the permission from the authors.
I am happy
that this fellowship enabled me to write my prose, in fact in one
sitting. Moreover, my stay both in Poland and in Czech Republic
provided me with the opportunities for reading. I was also able to
discover that boundless cultural space of these two countries. It
was very fortunate for me to be in Cieszyn, since the University
here prepares professional culturologists, as well as art, film,
and music critics. Therefore I was enjoying a perfect cultural
environment and many opportunities for communication. This fact is
difficult to overestimate. It was instrumental for my writing; it
inspired me, and in general provided an invaluable experience, not
to mention personal meetings with interesting Polish artists.
I am convinced that such friendly artistic interactions that I
got thanks to the fellowship from CEI and SWA are just as
important as writing the book. I had a wonderful chance to
experience what Europe without borders is. I got numberless
impressions and obtained priceless new knowledge. I made sure once
again that Ukraine has always been an integral part of Europe. I
always did it and shall try to do it in future -- to get Ukraine
and Europe closer by my translation activity. I wish the border
between Ukraine and Europe was similar to the one between Czech
Republic and Poland -- unnoticeable for those who cross to the
other bank of the river.
Marianna Kiyanovska
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