From the Bible to Shakespeare - (Ukrainian Studies) by Andrii Danylenko (Paperback)

About the Book

This book will stimulate scholarly interest in the Ukrainian language and literature that have faced numerous challenges in the modern period. May be used in university courses on the history of Slavic languages and literatures, contemporary theories of nation-building and national identity as well as language contact and sociolinguistics.

Book Synopsis

This book will stimulate scholarly interest in the Ukrainian language and literature that have faced numerous challenges in the modern period. May be used in university courses on the history of Slavic languages and literatures, contemporary theories of nation-building and national identity as well as language contact and sociolinguistics.

Review Quotes

"This book could be rightly considered as a further step towards the realization of an 'integral history of the new Ukrainian literary language' which Danylenko is striving for. ... Overall, the book can be read with the utmost curiosity and recommended to those scholars with a keen interest in the formation process of modern literary Ukrainian. Danylenko's detailed analysis of the language used in the exemplified translation fragments by Kulis and the comparison with the translations made by his, more or less famous, contemporaries, inserted in broader socio-historic and cultural-literary context, adds a fundamental milestone in the history of the Ukrainian language." -Salvatore Del Gaudio, Richerche Slavistiche Vol. 1 (LXI)

"From the Bible to Shakespeare represents a truly innovative and fundamental study of an important contribution to the Ukrainian linguistic culture, made by the famous Ukrainian writer and cultural figure Pantelejmon Kulis. . . . the volume also appears to be a very useful text for university studies. It provides a great deal of facts and theoretical concepts for reconstruction of the history of biblical studies on the Ukrainian terrain in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries."

"The learning and industry [of this book] are deep and wide. Modern technology has enable Danylenko to display and discuss different systems of transliteration and fonts accomodating variations in Cyrillic spelling, including Church Slavonic. Documentation occurs internal to the text in streamlined form ... well worth the price as a reference tool."

"The monograph, about the language of Pantelejmon Kulis's seminal Bible and Shakespeare translations from the 1860s until his death in 1897, is a major contribution to our understanding of the formation of modern literary and standard Ukrainian and a long-due appraisal of Kulis's contribution. It is based on an impressive wealth of unpublished sources and an extensive range of secondary literature. The principal merit lies in numerous detailed analyses of Kulis's and his contemporaries' language and the assessment of the forms and words found with respect to their provenance. This is a notoriously difficult undertaking, which very few scholars in Ukrainian philology are able to carry out with the same care, expertise and balanced approach."

"There is no figure more important for the development and standardization of literary Ukrainian in the nineteenth century than Pantelejmon Kulis. As an author, as a scholar, and as an activist, he worked tirelessly for the rejuvenation of Ukrainian culture and particularly its language. Among his most important contributions were his translations of the Bible and of Shakespeare's plays. With painstaking diligence, exhaustive research, and uncompromising analysis, Andrii Danylenko examines the language of these translations at great depth and compares them to the efforts of other translators in similar genres. The result is a masterful study of Kulis's language and a major contribution to the history of the Ukrainian language."

Andrii Danylenko's From the Bible to Shakespeare: Pantelejmon Kulis (1819-1897) and the Formation of Literary Ukrainian is a profound study that offers an insight into a complex process of the development of language, embracing the formation of the literary and the national. Kulis's translations represent an intriguing study case not only for the exploration of linguistic synthesis, but also for investigation of identity fluidity that stems from openness towards linguistic and cultural dialogism.

This is a well-researched, meticulous and erudite analysis that offers a wealth of information on the development of literary Ukrainian and Kulish's lasting contribution to the effort. It is a remarkable achievement and a welcome contribution to Ukrainian studies.

About the Author

Andrii Danylenko is a well-known Slavists who edited and authored several books on Slavic linguistics and philology as well as dozens of studies on a wide array of topics ranging from Indo-European to literary Ukrainian. He is an editorial Board member of several publications and a reviewer for numerous publications and programs in North America, Europe, and Japan.