Reflections on Ukrainian Week in Japan: Toward a Dialogue Between National and World Literature

I would like to start my talk with some memories of a project we held in December 2023.
It was called “Ukrainian Week in Japan 2023.” We invited Professor Olha Nikolenko, Professor Lidiia Matsevko-Bekerska and Kateryna Nikolenko from Poltava National Pedagogical University and Lviv National University to Japan. They read lectures on Ukrainian literature and culture in several universities such as Saitama University, University of Tokyo, University of Kyoto, Keio University and Sophia (Jochi) University. Professor Michiko Komiya (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies) and I translated and published their lectures. (Nikolenko et al., 2024).
We hope that this book will help Japanese readers know how rich and beautiful Ukrainian literature and culture are. In fact, I got to know some important elements as to Ukrainian culture after listening to and translating the lectures. I was particularly interested in the significance of baroque and modernism for Ukrainian literature. I asked myself: Why baroque and modernism?