Intellectual Construction of a Nation: Case of Ivan Franko

The aim of the project is to write a book on a leading Austrian Ukrainian intellectual Ivan Franko ( 1856-1916), on his activity in terms of its far reaching consequences for the intellectual make-up of modern Ukrainian nation. The book seeks to provide a new and interdisciplinary analytical context for such a study and would serve as a case for a checking and further elaboration of the newest theories of nationalism. More specifically, it will address the following issues: I) what were "constructing blocks "of modern Ukrainian identity given to the historical conjunture of Austrian Galicia; 2) how Franko had managed to overcome some constraints that those blocks imposed on him and to adapt, them for the Ukrainian nationbuilding 3) why and how the solutions be suggested have been accepted by the contemporary Ukrainian society; 4) to evaluate his successes and failures in coining a new and modernized version of the Ukrainian identity in their long-term impact. The issues are supposed to be analyzed in a broader comparative context of nationbuilding processes of Austrian- Hungarian and Russian, empires. In the same vein as Franko` s German language writings have been reintroduced into the Austrian literature history, his political writings, especially on national issies of the Habsburg monarchy, are supposed to be reintegrated in the context of modern Austrian intellectual history.