Lesson: Prague School of Ukrainian Poetry

Goal: To explain through «Prague School of Ukrainian Poetry» how people, institutions and events link Czechia and Ukraine.

Lesson plan

1. 3 min · Introduction. Show Prague and Ukraine on a map. Ask the class what they know about «Prague School of Ukrainian Poetry».
2. 4 min · Who is it. The Prague School of Ukrainian Poetry is a retrospective literary label for an informal network of interwar Ukrainian émigré writers, including Yevhen Malaniuk, Yurii Darahan, Oleh Olzhych, and Olena Teliha. Although strongly connected to Prague and Poděbrady, many authors also lived or published in Warsaw, Lviv, and elsewhere. It was not a legally constituted association with a fixed membership or headquarters.
3. 5 min · Facts from the dossier. Read the dossier facts aloud and ask pupils in pairs to put them in order of time.
4. 3 min · Summary. Discuss what of this story can still be seen today and where to learn more about it.

Facts

• 1917–1921: The struggles for independence, after which some writers emigrated. R0099
• 1921: The UFU began its Prague period, an important educational context. R0099
• 1922: The Ukrainian Economic Academy was founded in Poděbrady. R0099
• 1922-07: The Shovheniv family, including Olena Teliha, is in Czechoslovakia. R0099

Questions to discuss

1. What links «Prague School of Ukrainian Poetry» with Czechia and Ukraine?
2. Which source supports the most important fact?
3. What does the dossier mark as unverified, and why?

Task

Find one source in the dossier and describe what it says.