Sergey Zhadan: biography and creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The diversity and versatility of modern Ukrainian literature is simply amazing. Among the authors one can find both people writing in traditional genres and inventors of something new, unusual and bright. As they say, writers adapt to the present, and many fans respond to them with love and appreciate what they create. And one of the brightest representatives of modern Ukrainian literature is undoubtedly Sergiy Zhadan. His works have been translated into twelve different languages.

Sergey Zhadan: biography

A writer, prose writer and poet of our time was born in the family of a driver, in the Luhansk region in the city of Starobelsk. Sergei Viktorovich was born on August 23, 1974. In his hometown, he graduated from high school, found his first friends and gained experience, thanks to which he continued his life path. In the early nineties he was a distributor of national newspapers and symbols. At that time, he did not yet speak pure Ukrainian, but often switched to Russian in conversations.

After school years, he went to Kharkov, where he receivedhigher education at the Pedagogical University. Thus, in 1996, another graduate specialist appeared in Ukraine, who graduated from the faculty of Ukrainian-German philology. Over the next three years, Zhadan studied at the graduate school of the same university. The topic of his dissertation was Ukrainian futurism.

Teaching activities

After graduating from graduate school, Sergei Zhadan becomes a teacher at the Department of Literature at the same institution. At that time, he was engaged in translations from Belarusian, Russian and German. He worked until 2004, when he ended his teaching career, becoming a fully independent writer.

Poetic activity

In parallel, he was already printing his works. His very first collection of poetry was published in 1993, and it was called “Pink Degenerate”. In 1998, he became the winner of the "Verse of the Year" award in the literary association "Boo-Bah-Boo". Since 2000, he has been Vice President of the Association of Ukrainian Writers. Criticism recognized that it was Sergey Zhadan who was the leader of the poetic generation of the end of the last century. The biography and work of this man are beginning to interest not only domestic readers, but also many foreign connoisseurs of literary work. To date, he has published thirteen collections of poetry, the latest of which is called Dream Life, which hit the bookshelves in 2015.

Cultural activities

Over time, his works began to be translated into various languages, including: English, Polish,German, Armenian, Serbian, Lithuanian, Croatian, Belarusian and Russian. During his life, he organized many artistic and cultural events, exhibitions, he has more than one rock concert to his credit.

Also, many festivals have been organized with his hands, more than one publishing project has been carried out, and much more. In general, the social life of Sergei Zhadan is very rich and full of events. In 2014, he even made a cameo appearance in the film The Guide.

Music activities

Since 2008, Sergey Zhadan has been actively collaborating with the musical rock band "Dogs in Space", playing in the style of ethno-ska. By the way, it was thanks to Sergey that the group gained its popularity. Since then, they have created many joint compositions using the writer's poetry.

At the moment, the most significant of them was a music album called "Weapons of the Proletariat". Now the album is gaining popularity, released together with Zhadan in 2014, called "Fight for her." In addition, there is an audiobook called "Depeche Mode" based on the famous novel by Sergei.

Prose

At the moment there are eleven works in prose written by Sergei Zhadan. Among them there are full-fledged novels, and collections of short stories. The most famous and popular of them is a book called "Anarchy in the UKR". Critics still cannot decide whether this is agitation, scientific research or fiction. This book was published in 2005 to this day.is one of the best-selling works of the writer. In addition, Sergei participated in the creation of six collections of works by other authors.

Sergey Zhadan: photo and personal life

Sergei Viktorovich was married twice. The first wife's name is Svetlana Oleshko, together with her he has a thirteen-year-old son, Vanya. She works in the Kharkov theater as a director. The second wife's name is Irina Kunitsyna, she is seven years younger than Sergei and works at the Folio agency as a distributor of his books. The marriage took place in 2009, before that they cohabited for three years. The wedding was not advertised in the press in advance, and there was no serious celebration on this occasion. Despite this, many photographs and videos of the writer's personal life delight fans and connoisseurs of his work.

Political activities

In addition to participating in the distribution of political newspapers in the nineties, Zhadan takes an active part in the political upheavals of the country. For example, during the Orange Revolution, he was a commandant on Yushchenko's side in Kharkov. And in 2011 he became the organizer of the action against the adoption of the law "On the protection of public morality." During the Euromaidan, he also took an active part in the territory of Kharkov. Among other things, his quotes and speeches regarding the political and social situation in the country are quite popular, despite the fact that they often sound not entirely censored. At the moment, he continues to work and live in Kharkiv.