Vasyl′ Stus (1938–1985) is the only Ukrainian writer of the twentieth century on whom literary historians and public intellectuals have bestowed the honor of being considered a modern reincarnation of the Ukrainian “national poet” Taras Shevchenko (Grabowicz). Highly esteemed for both his literary legacy and his role in the dissident movement of late Soviet Ukraine, Stus has enjoyed the reputation of a national martyr since his death in a Soviet labor camp in 1985. Some international and a small number of Ukrainian scholars of his complex late modernist poetry have nevertheless pointed out the paradoxical nature of Stus’s reception in Ukraine: regarded as one of Ukraine’s foremost heroes, mostly by virtue of his uncompromising attitude toward the Soviet system and its…
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Citation: Achilli, Alessandro. "Vasyl′ Stus". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 June 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=14168, accessed 23 November 2024.]
