Oleksandr Boychenko (writer, 1970)

Oleksandr Boychenko, 2015

Oleksandr Wolodymyrowytsch Boychenko ( Ukrainian Олександр Володимирович Бойченко ;. Scientific transliteration Oleksandr Volodymyrovyč Bojčenko * 15. December 1970 in Czernowitz ) is a Ukrainian writer , essayist , translator , literary critic and columnist.

biography

Oleksandr Bojtschenko was born in Chernivtsi in 1970 and received the first name of the Soviet Ukrainian writer of the same name (1903-1950) . After finishing school, he studied Russian language and literature at the Jurij Fedkowytsch National University in Chernivtsi . In 1995 he defended in Kiev at the National Taras Shevchenko University of Kiev his dissertation on "The Judgment of Socrates in European literature". He then taught international literature at his university in Chernivtsi from 1997 to 2010. At the same time, alongside Jurij Andruchowytsch, he was one of the editors of the literary magazine "Potjah 76" and wrote as a columnist for the magazines "Ukraïns'kyj Žurnal" (Prague) and "Kraïna" (Kiev) and newspapers such as "Molodyj Bukovinec" (Young Bukovinian), “Dzerkalo Tyžnja” (Kiev) and others. Like many other young Ukrainian authors and translators, he was supported in his development by two grants in 2005 and 2008 from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Poland "Gaude Polonia" in Warsaw. His subsequent literary translations from Polish owe these impulses. Since 2010 he has devoted himself exclusively to creative work and has worked as a book author, essayist, author of scientific articles, editor and sharp-tongued columnist. He also translates from Polish and Russian. He is a member of the jury for the Book of the Year of the Ukraine and not only participates in the local literature festival Meridian Chernivtsi as an author and quick-witted ironic interlocutor. Oleksandr Boychenko is married to the psychologist Oksana Penderezka and has a daughter with her.

plant

Boychenko is considered one of the best contemporary essayists in Ukraine and thus inspires his younger writer friend Andrij Lyubka, among others . In recent years, many of his articles have appeared regularly in the Internet newspaper "Zbruc". The author described his first work as a teaching material not recommended by any ministry (konspekt lekcii). It is thanks to his teaching at the university and is devoted to many figures of Ukrainian and world literature in an ironic, entertaining and stimulating way, always keeping an eye on the Ukrainian present. He repeatedly resorts to distant mirrors, which he likes to find in Africa and other third world countries. As a translator, Bojtschenko has so far worked on imparting knowledge of the books by Viktor Erofejew , Olga Tokarczuk , Tadeusz Borowski and Daniel Odija as well as numerous smaller texts by Polish authors.

Awards

Boychenko has been honored with a number of prizes and grants:

• 2003 Book of the Year of Ukraine in the category media criticism
• 2005 and 2008 “Gaude Polonia” scholarship from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Poland.
• 2015 Yury Shevelov Prize from the Ukrainian PEN Club

bibliography

Literary publications

• Something of the kind Château quoi (Щось на кшталт шатокуа). Ivano-Frankivsk 2003. (main work).
• Château quoi plus (Шатокуа плюс). Lviv 2004.
• Maybe a book ... (Аби книжка). Chernivtsi 2011.
• Mine among strangers (Мої серед чужих). Chernivtsi 2012.
• More / less (Більше / Менше). Chernivtsi 2015.
• 50 percent rationality (50 відсотків рації). Chernivtsi 2016.

scientific publications

• The Judgment of Socrates in European Literature (Суд над Сократом в європейській літературі: функціонування традиційної структури). Diss. Chernivtsi 1995.

Further joint publications with his wife.

Translations (in selection)

• Viktor Erofejev, (The good Stalin). Lviv 2006.
• Daniel Odija, (The sawmill). Chernivtsi 2008.
• Tadeusz Borowski, (With us in Auschwitz). Chernivtsi 2014.