Markelova A. Translator`s interpretation of ethnosymbols in the poetry of Ukrainian Sixtiers.

Pithy and powerful, poetry is one of the most dynamic forms of cultural resistance. From the purges in the 1930s and the civil rights movement in the 1960s to the Revolution of Dignity in the 2010s, poetry remains commanding enough to gather crowds of the unbowed and sharp enough to demand attention of the authorities. Civil rights movement in the 1960s affected the development of competing national narratives. It led to the appearance of Ukrainian poets, artists, and public activists who started thinking about the cultural and national revival of Ukraine during the Khrushchev Thaw in the 1960s. These creative individuals formed a new community with a distinct national identity focused on Ukrainian culture and democratic ethical values, which was later labeled as the Sixtiers. They were viewed by the authorities as a potential threat because of their successful attempts to revive the Ukrainian language and ethnic culture in their works. The data for dissertation were obtained from the poems written by the Sixtiers – Lina Kostenko, Vitaliy Korotych, Mykola Vingranovsky, Ivan Drach, Vasyl Symonenko, Vasyl Stys – and the English translations by Marta Bogachevskaya-Khomyak, Danylo Huzar-Struk, Ihor Shankovskyi, Yaropolk Lassovskyi, Michael Naydan, Peter Tempest, Paola Schwartz, Stanley Kuneitz, Paula Nemser, Daniel Galperin, Maria Skrypnyk, Michel McGrath, Dzvinia Orlovsky, Mark Redman. The works of the Sixtiers have many propensities in common: literary experimentation, attraction to traditional folklore images, extensive usage of ethnosymbolism, national historical topics, uncompromisingly fresh esthetics, anti-dictatorship and anti-Soviet subtext. In the face of political rhetoric and strong censorship of the Soviet regime, the Sixtiers managed to highlight the importance and cultural value of Ukrainian national identity. The resort to ethnosymbolism has played a crucial role in their mission.