The European Passport: How Lesia Ukrainka Wrote Ukraine into European History | Lecture by Oksana Zabuzhko

Ukrainian author and intellectual Oksana Zabuzhko delivers a special lecture on the pioneering poet, playwright and feminist Lesia Ukrainka. How did Ukrainka manage to challenge the boundaries imposed by the Russian Empire and place Ukrainian literature within a broader European intellectual tradition – and what makes her legacy relevant today?

Ukrainka wrote works such as Cassandra, The Forest Song and The Stone Host, which explore freedom, power, responsibility and women's agency. She engaged with European philosophy, literature and politics at a time when the Ukrainian language and culture faced severe restrictions under the empire. Drawing on her landmark study Notre Dame d'Ukraine and decades of research, Zabuzhko will examine how Ukrainka broke through cultural boundaries and asserted Ukraine's place in European literature.

Zabuzhko is the author of Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex, The Museum of Abandoned Secrets and The Longest Journey, and her works have been translated into more than 25 languages. She has received the Angelus Central European Literary Prize, Ukraine's Shevchenko National Prize and the French Legion of Honour. The lecture will be followed by discussion and questions from the audience.