Vardanyan V. The Self – the Other in the children’s literature of the Ukrainian Diaspora: national sphere of concepts, imagological models

In the thesis, children’s literature of the Ukrainian Diaspora of the 20th century is systematically and profoundly analyzed for the first time. The author has investigated the various genres of Ukrainian writers who wrote in exile for children and youth. Therefore, the subject of the research is Ukrainian Diaspora writers’ prose, poetic and dramatic works for children and youth of the 20th century. At present, more than fifty figures can be attributed to writers who wrote for children and youth in Ukrainian Diaspora. Based on biographies of the writers in this thesis, we have traced the geography of Ukrainian Diaspora children’s literature, which was conventionally grouped into “European” and “overseas” centers. The translated children’s literature of the Ukrainian Diaspora is also involved in the analysis. We are guided by the intention not only to reveal the genre-thematic features of Ukrainian Diaspora children’s literature, but also to comprehend it in the context of Ukrainian Soviet and world children’s literature. In order to reveal the peculiarities of the Ukrainian Diaspora children’s literature, we turn to works that are designed for different age groups of children’s readers: preschool, primary school age, and youth. The starting point of the thesis is the fact that the literary process was different in the Diaspora and the Soviet Ukraine, because its stages are mainly linked to the waves of emigration. Three waves are specified in the work, which in the context of the foundation and development of the Diaspora children’s literature are conventionally designated as “the Prague stage” (1920–1945), “camp times” (1946–1951) and “the overseas period” (1951–1991). It is argued that a new step of children’s literature in emigration was made after the completion of the settlement process of Ukrainians, which took place from 1948 to 1951 from Germany to the English-speaking countries such as the USA, Canada, Australia, and other countries. Ukrainian expatriates have expanded activities of their institutions and associations in many countries that became the most important foreign centers of Ukrainian studies; among them is the Leonid Hlibov Association of Children’s Literature Writers (OPDL).