stereotypes

[George G. Grabowicz]

        Edward Dumanis' reply to Hanya Krill (Re: Contemporary Russian
Literature) is questionable on at least two counts. One is its hectoring
and apodictic tone (the opening lines, for example,
>So, what?
>What is your problem?
sound more like a preface to a street brawl than to an intellectual discussion).
        The other is the use of uninformed and inflammatory assertions, e.g.,
>...regarding Shevchenko, do you think that his anti-Semitic and
>anti-Polish convictions diminish his role as possibly the greatest Ukrainian
>poet?..
        Shevchenko's use of the term "zhyd/zhid" (cf. the earlier SEELANGS
discussion on this) or the picture of the Jewish character Lejba in the
poem "Hajdamaky" partake of given linguistic and poetic conventions (those
very paradigms Dumanis speaks of).  If one is looking for convictions (!)
one should take note of the collective open letter to _Russkij vestnik_
(1858) which he signed (along with such Ukrainian writers as Pantelejmon
Kulish, Mykola Kostomarov, Marko Vovchok) in protest against anti-Semitic
articles in the journal _Illjustracija_. (Further information on this and
attendant issues can be found in _Ukrainian-Jewish Relations in Historical
Perspective_, Peter J. Potichnyj and Howard Aster, eds., Canadian Institute
of Ukrainian Studies, Edmonton, 1988.) As to Shevchenko's "anti-Polish
convictions," a counterpoint to the Romantic pathos of "Hajdamaky" is found
already in the (Slavophile) postscript to the poem itself.  Another text
that one usually refers to in this connection is "Poljakam" (Shche jak buly
my kozakamy). In general, the critical literature on Shevchenko's broad and
often warm contacts with Polish writers and exiles and his relation to
Polish literature is substantial.
        One can only support the idea of going beyond stereotypes. As
Dumanis writes,
>I think that on the threshold of the XXI century we can free ourselves
>from the >old stereotypes, and see the people for what they really are in
>the whole
>variety and complexity of different paradigms.
But anyone making that appeal should first put his house in order.
                                                                G. Grabowicz