GEORGE LUCKYJ’S EDITORIAL CONCEPT OF TRANSLATION AS A PROPOSAL FOR ADVANCING UKRAINIAN STUDIES GLOBALLY

Abstract

The present article analyzes George Luckyj’s approaches to translating and presenting Ukrainian cultural works to an English-language audience, focusing on the principles of editing, arrangement, and sociopolitical positioning. The study demonstrates the potential of his editorial concept for fundamentally reshaping the field of Ukrainian studies at the international level today. The article argues that expanding interpretive frameworks and increasing intellectual symbolic capital was a fundamental goal of George Luckyj’s editorial concept – a vision that remains relevant today. Based on the analysis, four key components of his editorial framework for translated publications can be identified: a historical-dialogical approach (broader contextualization), thematic selectivity, comprehensive paratextual accompaniment, and relevant translation. The core of the concept is the decolonization of knowledge: Luckyj sought to present Ukrainian literature as an equal component of the global cultural discourse, going beyond colonial narratives. This is evidenced by his English-language editions of Mykola Khvylovy’s works, the prose of the 1920s modernists, and the well-known anthology «Modern Ukrainian Short Stories», among other initiatives. His landmark publishing project is positioned as the anthology of documents and primary sources of Ukrainian intellectual history in English translations, «Towards an Intellectual History of Ukraine: An Anthology of Ukrainian Thought from 1710 to 1995», which was implemented in 1996 in Toronto in collaboration with Ralph Lindheim. In this context, the article also actualizes editorial studies of translation as an important interdisciplinary area of translation studies, which allows for a comprehensive view of the historiosophy of the reception of Ukrainian culture in the foreign language space and a complex problematization of the ensuing interpretive shifts.