“SF in Ukraine” - Michael Burianyk (Locus Magazine)

An excellent overview of the Ukrainian SF&F by Michael Burianyk in Locus online magazine:

“Ukrainian SF, fantasy, and horror is little known in the English-speaking world, leaving not much of a shadow in publish­ing or on the internet, but there is a long, solid, and growing tradition in what is usually called “Fantastyka.” - Michael Burianyk

“There is only one in-depth, English-language study of Ukrainian Fantastic Fiction, Walter Smyrniw’s “Ukrainian Science Fiction: Historical and Thematic Perspectives”.
Smyrniw is a literary critic and Professor Emeritus of Mc­Master University, whose expertise is in 19th- and 20th-century Ukrainian and Russian literatures.
In this monograph, he presents his outline of Ukrainian Science Fiction in the 20th century over some 20 chapters.

He introduces SF and its historical development internation­ally – though more from the point of view of literary criticism and only to the end of the 19th century.

He develops his belief that early Ukrai­nian SF was conceived under the wide influence of western Utopian literature, and spends three chapters analyzing what he considers the first work of Ukrainian Utopia/SF, “Koly ziishlo sontse: opovidannia z 2000 roku” (When the Sun Rose: A Tale from the Year 2000) published in Toronto in 1918 by Pavlo Krat, a Ukrainian-Canadian emigre and political refugee.” - Michael Burianyk

© Locus Online – The Magazine of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Field

Dr. Michael Burianyk was born and raised in western Canada.

Dr. Burianyk has Bachelor degrees in Physics and Geological Sciences and an M.Sc. in Geophysics from the University of Saskatchewan and a Ph.D. in Geophysics from the University of Alberta. After some time in academic research he entered the Petroleum industry working as a Geophysicist in Canada and The Netherlands

In his professional life he has held several chairman positions with the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, including the Global Affairs Committee and Geoscientists Without Borders.

Besides his scientific work he has wide-ranging interest in Science Fiction and Fantasy literature, comics, history, archaeology, linguistics and languages, photography, and antique maps and photographs.

SF in Ukraine by Michael Burianyk

Be the first to comment