The project examines poetry in Soviet Ukraine and Ukraine, focusing on loose or organised networks of dissident writers (the Helsinki Group) and key individuals who, through their writing, advocated for human rights, international law, democratisation and the prosecution of war crimes, then and now. SP 1 aims to examine the relationship between poetics, biography and human rights in Soviet Ukrainian poetry. The focus is on the poetic and biographical practices of intervention employed by the Ukrainian poet Vasyl Stus (1939-1985) in the context of the ‘šistdesjatnyky’ (Sixties) generation and the human rights movement of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. SP 2 aims to examine the connection between aesthetic text production, political activism and infrastructure building in contemporary Ukrainian literature (2014-2024). The focus is on the poetic, prosaic and essayistic practices of intervention using the example of Serhii Zhadan and Viktoriia Amelina under the conditions of a military state of emergency and the transformation of post-totalitarian cultural networks.

Head of Project

Prof. Dr. Annette Werberger (SP 1)

Doctoral Researcher

Davina Lang (SP 2)