Odessa w literaturach słowiańskich. Studia

Abstract

This book presents studies, essays and sketches which are the outcome of the I International Scientific Conference "The Image of Odessa in Slavonic Literatures", which took place on 12-13 September 2013. It was organised by: – the Department of the Ukrainian Literature, the Faculty of Philology of the Odessa I.I.Mechnikov National University (Ukraine); – the Department of Philological Studies "East-West" operating at the Faculty of Philology of the University of Białystok (Poland). The conference initiators and originators were Prof. Jarosław Ławski (University of Białystok) and Prof. Natalya Malyutina, (Odessa University). This session was the first conference of this kind in Ukraine focused on the "myth of Odessa", a city of the unique character, history, symbols, which attracted many artists such as Mickiewicz and Pushkin, Lesya Ukrainka, Ilf and Petrov, Aivazovsky and Mark Twain, Jabotinsky and Paustovsky. Forty five participants from Ukraine, Poland, Russia, Belarus and Bulgaria, took part in the conference. The sessions tool place in the palace halls of Literature Museum, to which participants were invited by its Director Tetiana Liptuga. The Conference participants discussed following topics: – Literary images of Odessa in Ukrainian, Polish and Russian literature and in other Slavonic literatures. – Travellers from the East and West of Europe in Odessa – their image of the city and its inhabitants. – Odessa and the Black Sea, the port of Odessa – literary visions. – The mythology of Odessa in literature and art (for example, the Potemkin Stairs or Odessa Opera). – Multinational, international character of the city – the image of Odessa's inhabitants in the past and today. – Painting, sculpture, music, theatre, opera in Odessa – their literary representations; Odessa on screen and canvas. – Odessa and form: the genre productions of the city's image. – The myth of Odessa in Slavonic cultures (confronted with the images if this city in Western literatures). – Odessa's idiolect – the language of the city in the accounts of travellers, writers, guests. – Writers and artists from Odessa. – Between sensualism and metaphysics – philosophical contexts of the city's image. – Aesthetics of Odessa's representations in Slavonic literatures: from realism to grotesque. – Odessa as cultural palimpsest: from its Greek origin to its Ukrainian contemporary times. – Great Slavs in Odessa: Mickiewicz, Pushkin, Lesya Ukrainka, Paustovsky, Aivazov. The monograph Odessa in Slavonic Literatures presents the majority of studies and sketches delivered during the Conference on Odessa divided into four parts: The Phenomenon of Odessa, The Mythologies of the City, Odessa in the 19th Century, Odessa in the 20th Century. This publication is possible thanks to the support of Jan Leończuk, the Director of Łukasz Górnicki Podlachian Library in Białystok, which published in collaboration with the University of Białystok the Scientific Book Series "Colloquia Orientalia Bialostocensia". The Library's staff was involved in preparing the Odessa Conference. The publication of this book coincides with the II International Scientific Conference. This time its title is: "Odessa and the Black Sea as the literary and cultural space. Ideas – contexts – interpretations" (Odessa. 15-16 September 2016). The Conference is co-organised by the University of Białystok and Odessa I.I.Mechnikov National University. It will result in another monograph of the literary and cultural image of Odessa.