Одеські поети-шістдесятники

Abstract

Odessa of the period of the sixties was the centre of rapid development of the new industri al-urbanistic culture. At that time Ukrainian poetry was flourishing, as large numbers of young people from Southern and Central Ukrainian villages and small towns arrived in the Southern Palmira and joined its poetic circles. The University Literary circle became the home for the whole generation of famous poets, writers and critics, namely Mykola Cholodny, Anatoliy Kolisnychenko, Olexa Sherengovyi, Bohdan Sushynskyi, Hryhoriy Clochek, Volodymyr Yavorivskyi, Petro Osadchuk, Olexa Riznychenko etc. As the phenomenon of the sixtiers was not homogenuous, we will focus on the most prominent representatives: the dissident (Olexa Riznychenko (Riznykiv), 1937), the non-conformist (Borys Necherda, 1939 - 1998), and the one who managed to realize his creative potential despite the “spiritual decline” of the sixties (Stanislav Stryzheniuk, 1931). Having been twice repressed (1959–1961 and 1971–1977), Olexa Riznychenko created a curious poetic portrait of the dissident Odessa of the sixties. His worldview was greatly influenced by Svyatoslav Karavanskyi, a talented linguist and a translator from English, who was the central figure of the dissident movement in Odessa at the beginning of the sixties. Besides, having mastered the Polish language, he had a rich source of information in Polish periodicals of that time, e.g. «Nowe Widnokręgi», «Polityka», «Żołnierz Wolności», «Przekrój». Among his literary inspirers were A. Mitskievich, S. Lem. Borys Necherda (1939–1998) was another prominent representative of Odessa sixtiers. He was posthumously awarded the Laureate of Taras Shevchenko National Prize title. The author’s first collections of poems (The Mainland, 1963, Lada, 1965 and Bas-reliefs, 1967) reveal the painful spiritual experience of an individual in the totalitarian society and demonstrate his taste for parabolic aforistic forms. Having absorbed the rebellious ideas of the sixties, Necherda supported the dissident movement. At the same time his acquaintance with the prominent sixtiers (I. Svitlychnyi, V. Stus, G. Tiutiunnyk, M. Slaboshpytskyi etc.) actually made him an officially recognized poet. Urbanistic theme was one of the leitmotifs of his poetry, which made up for his isolation and harmonized his relations with the outer world. The main theme of Stanislav Stryzheniuk’s (1931) poetry is every-day life heroism, the joy of the art and creative work, inspiration and the work of his contemporaries. His first collections of poetry In the Fraternal Land (1957), The Land of Eagles (1960), The Rubicon (1962), My Platania (1967) brought him fame and made him one of the most prominent Ukrainian poets among the sixtiers of Odessa.