Ukrainian literature

Ukrainian literature is literature written in the Ukrainian language.

Ukrainian literature mostly developed under foreign domination over Ukrainian territories, foreign rule by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Poland, the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Romania, the Austria-Hungary Empire, and the Ottoman Empire, enriched Ukrainian culture and language, and Ukrainian authors were able to produce a rich literary heritage.

Ukrainian literature’s precursor: writings in Old-Church Slavonic and Latin in Ukraine
Prior to the establishment of Ukrainian literature in the 18th century, many authors from Ukraine wrote in "scholarly" languages of the Middle Ages – Latin and Old-Church Slavonic. Among prominent authors from Ukraine who wrote in Latin and Old-Church Slavonic are Hryhorii Skovoroda, Yuriy Drohobych, Stanislav Orikhovsky-Roxolan, Feofan Prokopovych, Jan-Toma Yuzefovych, Pavlo Rusyn-Krosnyanyn and others.

Beginnings of oral Ukrainian literature
During this period of history there was a higher number of elementary schools per population in the Hetmanate than in either neighboring Muscovy or Poland. In the 1740s, of 1,099 settlements within seven regimental districts, as many as 866 had primary schools. The German visitor to the Hetmanate, writing in 1720, commented on how the son of Hetman Danylo Apostol, who had never left Ukraine, was fluent in the Latin, Italian, French, German, Polish and Russian languages

Late 16th and early 17th century included the rise of folk epics called dumy. These songs celebrated the activities of the Cossacks and were oral retellings of major Ukrainian historical events in modern Ukrainian language (i.e., not in Old-Church Slavonic). This period produced Ostap Veresai, a renowned minstrel and kobzar from Poltava province, Ukraine.

Beginnings of written Ukrainian literature
The establishment of Ukrainian literature is believed to have been triggered by the publishing of a widely successful poem Eneida by Ivan Kotliarevsky in 1798, which is one of the first instances of a printed literary work written in modern Ukrainian language. Due to Kotliarevsky's role as the inaugurator of Ukrainian literature, among literary critics he is often referred to as "the father of Ukrainian literature". Modern Ukrainian prose was inaugurated by Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko’s novel Marusya (1834).

Contemporary literature
Since the late 1980s, and particularly after the independence of Ukraine (1991) and disappearance of Soviet censorship the whole generation of writers emerged: Sofia Maidanska, Ihor Kalynets, Moysey Fishbein, Yuri Andrukhovych, Serhiy Zhadan, Oksana Zabuzhko, Oleksandr Irvanets, Yuriy Izdryk, Maria Matios, Ihor Pavlyuk and many others. Many of them are considered to be "postmodernists".

Notable Ukrainian writers

 * Victoria Amelina
 * Emma Andijewska
 * Yuri Andrukhovych
 * Borys Antonenko-Davydovych
 * Bohdan-Ihor Antonych
 * Ivan Bahrianyi
 * Mykola Bazhan
 * Vasyl Barka
 * Bohdan Boychuk
 * Stepan Charnetskyi
 * Ilarion Cholhan
 * Viktor Domontovych
 * Ivan Drach
 * Ivan Franko
 * Moysey Fishbein
 * Eliáš Galajda
 * Nikolai Gogol
 * Yaroslav Halan
 * Oles Honchar
 * Yevhen Hutsalo
 * Igor Kaczurowskyj
 * Ihor Kalynets
 * Iryna Kalynets
 * Tadey Karabovych/Karabowicz
 * Yelysei Karpenko
 * Hryts’ko Kernerenko
 * Lesia Khraplyva
 * Mykola Khvylovy
 * Natalia Kobrynska
 * Olha Kobylyanska
 * Ivan Kocherha
 * Oleksa Kolomiyets
 * Yuriy Kosach
 * Lina Kostenko
 * Eaghor (Ihor) Kostetzky
 * Ivan Kotlyarevsky
 * Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky
 * Ludmyla Kovalenko
 * Oleh Koverko
 * Mykola Kulish
 * Panteleimon Kulish
 * Ivan Kulyk
 * Myroslav Laiuk
 * Oksana Liaturynska
 * Oksana Lutsyshyna
 * Yuriy Lypa
 * Andriy Lyubka
 * Oleh Lysheha
 * Sofia Maidanska
 * Vasyl Makhno
 * Andriy Malyshko
 * Tanya Malyarchuk
 * Maria Matios
 * Leonid Mosendz
 * Panas Myrny
 * Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky
 * Oleksandr Oles
 * Joseph Oleskiw
 * Ihor Pavlyuk
 * Olena Pchilka
 * Valerian Pidmohylny
 * Les Podervianskyi
 * Svitlana Pyrkalo
 * Maksym Rylsky
 * Taras Shevchenko
 * Valeriy Shevchuk
 * Vasyl Shkliar
 * Hryhori Skovoroda
 * Maryna Sokolyan
 * Volodymyr Sosyura
 * Vasyl Stefanyk
 * Vasyl Stus
 * Vasyl Symonenko
 * Yuriy Tarnawsky
 * Olena Teliha
 * Hryhir Tiutiunnyk
 * Pavlo Tychyna
 * Yuriy Tys
 * Lesya Ukrainka
 * Oles Ulianenko
 * Iryna Vilde
 * Marko Vovchok
 * Volodymyr Vynnychenko
 * Yuriy Vynnychuk
 * Ostap Vyshnia
 * Vira Vovk
 * Yuriy Yanovsky
 * Oksana Zabuzhko
 * Pavlo Zahrebelnyi
 * Mykola Zerov
 * Serhiy Zhadan
 * Iryna Vilde